ORCID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2038-8722
Date of Award
Summer 8-15-2020
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
In Deviant Form: American Literary Exiles, Logical Contradiction, and Postmodernism, I argue that a growing belief in the truth of logical paradoxes irrevocably changed twentieth-century American literature and culture. In the philosophy of logic, “deviant logics” are those that, unlike Aristotelian logic, allow for some paradoxes to be true. Like the sentence “This very sentence is false,” true paradoxes (or, interchangeably, true contradictions) are true if false and false if true, and can be traced through four defining cultural currents of twentieth-century American history: Supreme Court law, Marxism, Buddhist philosophy, and mathematical logic. Changes across these four currents also constituted important backgrounds for four of the most vital genres of postmodern American writing: namely, multi-ethnic or what I call “uncitizen” literature, Exilliteratur, Beat writing, and science fiction. Each genre thus holds examples of what I call “deviant form,” postmodern works that were both socially and logically deviant. Isolating for a belief in true paradoxes makes for interesting and productive pairings. Bridging the “analytic-continental divide” in philosophy and uniting the New Critics and deconstructionists in literary theory, true logical contradictions show how and where postmodern literature does in fact make truth claims.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
William J. Maxwell
Committee Members
Guinn Batten, Matt Erlin, Long Le-Khac, Steven Meyer,
Recommended Citation
Sanders, Michael, "Deviant Form: American Literary Exiles, Logical Contradiction, and Postmodernism" (2020). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2340.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/2340
Included in
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Logic and Foundations of Mathematics Commons