Visions of the City - Wittgenstein and Linguistic Modalities in Modernism

Master's Thesis , 2010 , 54 Pages , Grade: 4,0

Literature - Comparative Literature

This thesis asserts that Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy, expressed primarily through
his formulation of the private language argument, offers a uniquely illuminating perspective to
the works of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot. The very idea of the private language argument is
inherently built upon a limit. Through it, Wittgenstein poses a paradox to us: in examining the
limitations of language, it is impossible to determine what the limit is from the angle at which
language no longer plays a role. In this light, language is the currency of comprehension. In
examining the efficacy and dilemmas of language, its meaning, its use, its necessity of public
rules and one’s subsequent acknowledgement of them, Wittgenstein’s later work, Philosophical
Investigations, is employed throughout the body of this thesis. This paper argues that it is not
enough to merely consider the fact that Woolf and Eliot take an ethical stance (an action-based
position formed from their own interactions with the city of London) upon the epistemological
problems of private language; rather, it is more useful to assert the potency of the two authors’
differing solutions to the problems of language that are found in their respective works.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Wittgenstein’s Private Language and its Use

III. Woolf, Eliot, and the Parallax of Private Language

IV. Conclusion

• College: State University of New York at Buffalo
• Grade: 4,0
• Author: Thomas Robb (Author)
• Publication Year: 2010
• Pages: 54
• Catalog Number: V178705
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656008729
• ISBN (Book): 9783656008538
• Language: English
• Tags: visions, city, wittgenstein, linguistic, modalities, modernism