Reflection on the ethical aspects of the adoption of an analytical philosophical concept in the novel “The Tunnel” by W. Gass

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the significance of the philosophical problem of language and speech in William Gass’s novel “The Tunnel” as central to understanding the ideological and artistic intent of the work. The scientific originality consists in demonstrating the conceptual importance of the writer’s use of the foundations of an analytical philosophical approach to the interpretation of language in the creation of characters’ artistic images and emplotment. The main character’s focus on the word as the only true reality leads him to philosophical insights, but at the same time to loneliness, solipsism, loss of moral criteria in reasoning about man and history. The central image of the tunnel in the novel becomes a symbol of life in linguistic reality as a world that gives a sense of freedom within itself, but does not allow going beyond its limits. As a result, we prove that it is the problem of language, interpreted in the light of the author’s contemporary analytical tradition, that acts as the key one in understanding the idea of the novel, which gives the work a genuine philosophical depth. Gass shares the opinion of the followers of analytical philosophy about the primary role of language in the formation of a person’s worldview, but at the same time, he points out the importance of preserving traditional ideas about morality and ethics.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: July 18, 2023.
• Published: September 1, 2023.

Keywords

• Уильям Гэсс
• философский роман
• аналитическая философия
• язык
• Л. Витгенштейн
• William Gass
• philosophical novel
• analytical philosophy
• language
• L. Wittgenstein

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