The Influence of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language on the Textual Production of the Vienna Group

Luka Bešlagić

Abstract


The entirety of Wittgenstein’s problematization of language was of particular importance for numerous Austrian postwar artists and art movements, but was possibly most evident in the poetics and heterogeneous practices of the Vienna Group. Analysis of selected texts of the latter neo-avantgarde movement – namely, Konrad Bayer’s the philosopher’s stone1 (1963) and Oswald Wiener’s the improvement of central europe, novel (1969) – unveils the direct influence of both of the early and late Wittgenstein, paradigmatically represented by his two major books: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1953). Texts of the Vienna Group to which this article refers to are not interpreted as literary works, but rather as diverse examples of textual production; instead of being analyzed as aesthetic objects, these texts are examined as platforms of potential inscription of Wittgensteinian critique of language.

Keywords


Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophy of language, critique of language (Sprachkritik), linguistic turn, Vienna Group (Wiener Gruppe), textual production

Full Text:

PDF

References


Bayer, Konrad. Selected Works of Konrad Bayer. London: Atlas Press, 1986.

Berberović, Jelena. “Problem jezika u filozofiji Ludwiga Wittgensteina.” In Filosofska istraživanja. Beograd: Nolit, 1980, 9–30.

Ducrot, Oswald, and Tzvetan Todorov. “Texte.” In Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences du langage, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1972, 443–448.

Eder, Thomas, and Klaus Kastberger ed. Konrad Bayer: Texte, Bilder, Sounds in: Profile, no. 22. Wien: Zsolnay, 2015.

Grren, Malcolm, ed. Brus, Muehl, Nitsch, Schwarzkogler: Writings of the Vienna Actionists. London: Atlas Press, 1999.

Heimann, Bodo. Experimentelle Prosa der Gegenwart. München: Oldenbourg, 1978.

Hohmann, Klaus. Experimentelle Prosa: eine neue Literatur des Sprachexperiments: Texte und Einführung für den Deutschunterricht. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1974.

Jameson, Fredric. The Prison-House of Language: A Critical Account of Structuralism and Russian Formalism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Janetzki, Ulrich. Alphabet und Welt: über Konrad Bayer. Königstein/Ts., Hain, 1982.

König, Hartmut. Peter Handke: Sprachkritik und Sprachverwendung: Anmerkungen zu ausgesuchten Texten, Hollfeld, J. Beyer Verlag, 1978.

Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.

Mauthner, Fritz. Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache. Stuttgart: Cotta, vol. 1–3, 1901–1902.

Rorty, Richard ed. The Linguistic Turn: Recent Essays in Philosophical Method. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Rühm, Gerhard ed. Die Wiener Gruppe. Achleitner, Artmann, Bayer, Rühm, Wiener. Texte, Gemeinschaftsarbeiten, Aktionen. Rowohlt: Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1967.

Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966.

Schuh, Franz. “Das Material der Sprache.” In: DOSSIER Gerhard Rühm, edited by Kurt Bartsch and Stefan Schwar, 11–17. Graz: Droschl, 1999.

Šuvaković, Miško. “Imati pravo na teoriju i ići pravo na teoriju; o paradoksalnim odnosima teorije i filozofije u savremenoj kulturi/društvu.” TKH 16 (2008): 66–77.

Weibel, Peter ed. Die Wiener Gruppe: ein moment der moderne 1954–1960: die visuellen arbeiten und die aktionen [The Vienna Group: a moment of modernity 1954–1960: the visual works and the actions]: Friedrich Achleitner, H.C. Artmann, Konrad Bayer, Gerhard Rühm, Oswald Wiener. Wien: Springer, 1997.

Weibel, Peter. “Philosophie als Sprachkritik. Sprachkritische Epistemologie in Österreich um 1900.” manuskripte 79 (1983): 64–73.

Wiener, Oswald. “From The Improvement of Central Europe.” boundary 2 (“99 Poets/1999: An International Poetics Symposium”) 26, 1 (Spring 1999): 272–274.

Wiener, Oswald. “Remarks on Some Tendencies of the ‘Vienna Group’.” October 97 (Summer 2001): 120–130.

Wiener, Oswald. “Wittgensteins Einfluß auf die Wiener Gruppe.” In Wittgenstein und: Philosophie, Literatur, edited by Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler et all., 89–108. Wien: Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, 1990.

Wiener, Oswald. die verbesserung von mitteleuropa. Salzbrurg: Jung und Jung, 2013.

Wiesmayr, Elisabeth. Die Zeitschrift Manuskripte, 1960–1970. Königstein/Ts.: Hain, 1980.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: London, Routledge: Kegan Paul, 1963.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i9.116

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2017 AM Journal of Art and Media Studies

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

AM Journal of Art and Media Studies ISSN 2217-9666 - printed, ISSN 2406-1654 - online, UDK 7.01:316.774

Contact: amjournal@outlook.com

Publisher: Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

Indexed in: ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, DOAJ, and in The List of Scientific Journals Categorization of Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia (M24-2021). Beginning with No. 12 2017, AM is indexed, abstracted and covered in Clarivate Analytics service ESCI.