Ottmar Ette: Life in literature and literature in life

Abstract

This article is the result of a critical dialog with Literaturwissenchaft als Lebenswissenschaft (Literary theory as life’s knowledge) which is the “programmatic text” (Programmschrift) written by the German philologist Otmar Ette, with regard to the reflections and debates on the proclaim of 2007 as the Year of Humanities. After the summarized study of Ette’s thesis, this writing gives away a series of theoretical considerations about its urgency and pertinence, considering the epistemological actualization of the “philologies” in this era of “accelerated globalization” and the intertwining of relative knowledge in literature as well as in philosophy and the natural sciences. For that reason, the limits of life’s concept that operate in biological sciences are outpointed, as well as the possibility to outcome the complexity based on the relations between this sciences, literature and literary theory. Therefore, the new ways of sense making are restructured through the bonds between the representation of reality, life and truth.