Pragmatism, solidarity, and literature (Richard Rorty, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James)

This dissertation offers a critique, through readings of Henry James and Ralph Waldo Emerson, of Richard Rorty's account of literature's role in facilitating the fulfillment of a liberal pragmatist's ethical responsibilities.; Rorty believes liberal pragmatists have two main ethical responsibilities---a public responsibility to hone the skill at imaginative identification with others so as to increase and maintain social solidarity; and a private responsibility to invent a vocabulary that captures the idiosyncrasies of their contingent selves. Rorty argues that reading literary books helps liberal pragmatists fulfill these responsibilities. Novels with "thick descriptions" of the lives of unfamiliar people help pragmatists refine their skill at imaginative identification. Works by authors---like Nietzsche or Proust---who have created truly original personal vocabularies inspire pragmatists to pursue their private responsibilities and provide material to poach from.; As for the public responsibility, the dissertation argues that the power to identify with others is as likely to lead to solipsism as solidarity. The actions of James's protagonists---often held up as exemplifying the skill at imaginative identification with others---suggest that a keen perception of otherness may cause one to withdraw from society, or even rebuff the people one desires most. Thus, James's novels serve as a salutary warning to Rorty that the skill at imaginative identification alone may not be sufficient to sustain a liberal society.; The dissertation goes on to argue that Rorty's account of the liberal pragmatist's private responsibilities disregards the despair that often accompanies recognition of the self's contingency. Thus, Rorty ignores one of the liberal pragmatist's chief motives for reading literature---coping with existential uncertainty---and, as a result, impoverishes pragmatist literary theory. Emerson, unlike Rorty, recognized the psychological dangers of embracing the contingent self. In his essays, Emerson experimented with coping through "compensation," the composition in language of attitudes that help one affirm his contingent condition. This dissertation hopes to return to Rorty's ethical theory of literature, through Emerson, a more persuasive account of the rhetorical work involved in coming to terms with the contingency of self and, in so doing, to strengthen pragmatism's rationale for studying literature.