Kurt Müller-Vollmer
Towards a Phenomenological Theory of Literature: A Study of Wilhelm Dilthey's "Poetik".The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1963. Stanford Studies in Germanics and Slavics, Volume I. 217 pages.Volume, measuring approximately 5.75" x 8.75", is bound in yellow cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book displays light shelfwear. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. Dust jacket shows moderate shelfwear, with minor loss at top/bottom edge of spine panel. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"This study presents for the first time in the English language a systematic and critical exposition of Dilthey's poetic and literary theories. In his introduction the author offers a brief history of Dilthey's astonishing influence on such diverse disciplines as phenomenology, existential philosophy, and cultural and intellectual history, pointing out the frequently ambiguous nature of his influence. Thus in literary scholarship the so-called "geistesgeschichtliche" school in Germany, which for many decades pretended to have followed Dilthey closely in its basic ideas and methods, is shown to have fundamentally distorted and misinterpreted his work. Consequently, today's critics hostile to "geistesgeschichtliche" approach are mistaken if they identify this approach with the views held by Dilthey.Against this background the author establishes the true intention behind Dilthey's critical endeavors.At the root of Dilthey's transcendental approach he finds the desire to overcome the current historicist predicament and to set up literary theory as the firm foundation for the entire humanistic and historical studies. Dilthey's importance and central position in the establishment of the form and direction of a whole series of humanistic disciplines is thus clearly indicated.
The author then turns to the three concepts which form the cornerstone of Dilthey's theory -- essence, type and symbol. It becomes apparent that the literary work was for Dilthey a complex system of symbols. His position enabled him to unite different points of view which today are represented by opposing schools of literary criticism. Thus the nexus of relations between the literary work, the author, the audience, the world of common experience, of society and history, could be accounted for consistently. In no way do his views allow for a reduction of literary theory to a narrow concept of art for art's sake."