ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the dimensions of the reading experience into focus as a self-conscious process through an exploration of literary spirituality. This approach is motivated by two closely related reasons, both of which pertain to the desired outcomes of literary criticism on a methodological and hermeneutical level. The book then examines the pragmatics of reading as a spiritual or indeed philosophical exercise in light of modern and contemporary concerns for the twin notions of experience and language. It offers a demonstration of what that task could be, based on a detailed study of Larry Eigner’s poetry’s use of ordinary language. In keeping with Wittgenstein’s vision of words as being all too often used while exiled from their home in language, the book then contemplates interpretive practices from the eminently pluralistic perspective of diaspora.
