Roman Ingarden and the "Appropriate Aesthetic Attitude" to the Literary Work of Art

Abstract

1. Ingarden recognizes a plurality of and inappropriate attitudes to the literary work of art (LWA). This discussion is not concerned with the attitudes not directly relevant to the aesthetic concretization of the LWA. Yet in order to understand the appropriate aesthetic attitude (AAA) more accurately, we must mention the existence of various attitudes to the LWA that ignore its specific artistic character. The approach of an historian or a scholar searching for the identity of the author of a given literary work (LW) or for the date of its creation is parallel to the approach of an art historian interested in similar questions. These scholars are dealing with questions that pertain to the identity of a work of art. Yet, they could supply us at any time with a series of true statements concerning the work without relating thematically to the work's artistic values. Theoretically they might even perform their job without being aware of the existence of such values. In the same way, the approach of an ethnographer, a philologist, or an historian of ideas which utilizes a LWA in order to acquire information concerning the development of society, language, or ideas is legitimate in its own right. There is nothing wrong with it as long as these scholars are fully aware of their manner of dealing with the LWA and are not confusing their attitudes with the appropriate aesthetic attitude to the LWA (Ingarden 1973b:221-222). One of Ingarden's aims (in my opinion also one of his achieve-