Changing the Story: Tradition, Imagination, and the Interpretive Work of Possibility

Abstract

In this Chapter, Carr explores how the centrality of interpretation in our lives and interactions allows us to better understand, and make use of, the malleability of tradition and resources. She begins by comparing the work of Christine de Pizan and Luce Irigaray on the question of what constitutes human nature and on their conception of society. Then, building on the fundamentally interpretive work of perception, Carr shows how Hans-Georg Gadamer’s notion of tradition as something we are both shaped by and which we also shape allows us room to change the way we think and act in the world. Following Gadamer’s description of the notion of truth in art and his engagement with Aristotle on tragedy, which Carr relates to both Christine’s and Irigaray’s writings, the chapter explores ethical self-formation as instigated by a work of art, and builds a connection between this self-formation and knowledge of how to act properly in the world. By drawing on her textual interactions with Christine, Irigaray, and Gadamer, Carr argues for a kind of experiential, participatory, and phronesis-oriented reading that flows from readers’ intellectually engaged imaginations. This kind of reading and imaginative construction requires long study, a speculative leap, and the ability to be conceptually limber. In concluding, Carr argues that philosophy and fiction, working together, can produce practical (that is, context appropriate) understanding and possibilities for social transformation that did not exist previously, but can now be taken up and worked with.