In the past decades the topic of recognition has moved to the center of critical theories and philosophical debates. Can these theories be of use for literary studies? This essay discusses the relation between literature and recognition in five parts: first, a comparison of two different perspectives on recognition that are especially suggestive for possible uses of the concept in literary studies; second, a discussion of the question of identity, since, in current debates, recognition is inextricably linked with questions of identity formation; third, an overview of some of the dominant motifs and patterns in narratives of recognition in order to highlight the amazing centrality of the theme in a wide range of literary texts and literary genres and to regain an awareness of an imaginary core of literature that has often been forgotten in the professionalization of literary studies; fourth, a discussion to what extent recognition can also be understood and described as an effect of the reading experience (and of aesthetic experience more generally); and fifth, a return to the starting question of the relation between literature and recognition, focusing on the issue of reciprocity and on the challenge provided by normative theories of recognition.
Fictional texts have played a key role in Western societies in broadening the definition of what constitutes justice from issues of distribution to questions of recognition. In its first part, this essay describes three major reasons why fictional texts have gained central cultural importance in articulating claims for recognition: a) fiction is an important part of modernity, if not, in fact, one of its driving engines; b) fiction invites symbolic transfer processes; c) because fictional texts only gain meaning in the act of reception, they can function as extension of the recipient’s interiority in ways that open up new possibilities of public recognition. Fictional texts are therefore especially well suited to respond to the challenge created by democratic societies of how to gain attention, find recognition, and establish self-respect. However, in contrast to models of reading based on concepts of empathy (Nussbaum) or misrecognition (poststructuralism), it is argued that this “recognition-effect” is created by means of a transfer (Iser). Hence, it is not dependent on mimetic modes of representation, but can also result from such forms of expression as popular culture and experimental modernism. In conclusion, the question is raised whether and how claims for recognition articulated by fictional texts can still be related to the idea of justice as a commonly shared goal.
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