Ordinary Language Criticism: A Manifesto

The Surrealism of the Habitual: From Poetic Language to the Prose of Life

“…In recent years, a number of scholars have turned to ordinary language philosophy (sometimes as an alternative to post-structuralist theory). 15 However, as the above discussion of Austin illustrates, ordinary language philosophy has trouble accounting for the literary speech act, except as a form of utterance that is 'parasitic' on 'serious' language use. 16 By contrast with Austin's account, Wittgenstein's description of language as composed of overlapping language-games 17 seems more promising for literary criticism; for one thing, it can be taken to dissolve the notion that literary language is uniquely problematic.…”

“…33 Nevertheless, Merleau-Ponty believes with Hegel that both poetry and great prose can transcend the merely prosaic (PW, 63). Creative language, or, in Merleau-Ponty's terms, speech or 'speaking language' (langage parlant) leads us back to the world by displacing and decentering the meanings of 'sedimented language' (langage parlé) (PW, [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. If this view of language sounds quite unlike Wittgenstein's, Michel de Certeau nevertheless points the way to a reconciliation of the two perspectives: creative language does not leap outside ordinary language-games, but opens up a space for the new through a tactical engagement with the given.…”