Pragmatism and Poetic Agency

Ulf Schulenberg teaches American studies at the University of Bremen, Germany. He is the author of Zwischen Realismus und Avantgarde (2000), Lovers and Knowers (2007), Romanticism and Pragmatism (2015), and Marxism, Pragmatism, and Postmetaphysics (2019). He has published widely in literary and cultural theory, aesthetics, and American and European intellectual history.

Introduction . . . . . .

Friedrich Nietzsche and the Pragmatists






"Only we have created the world that concerns man!:" Nietzsche, Naturalism, and the Idea of Creativity . . . . . .



"The humanistic state of mind:" James and Nietzsche . . . . . .



Knowing Is Doing, Knowing Is Creating: Dewey and Nietzsche . . . . . .



"But the answer to a great poem is a still better poem:" Rorty and Nietzsche . . . . . .



Naturalizing Kant?: Constructivism and Pragmatism . . . . . .
Pragmatism, Poetic Agency, and Race




"This craving, this urge for beauty:" The Female Black Dandy in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand . . . . . .



"Ah wants tuh utilize mahself all over:" Poetic Agency in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God . . . . . .
Theoretical Encounters




Pragmatism, Marxism, and Humanism . . . . . .



"All anybody ever does with anything is use it:" Edward Said, Richard Rorty, and the Task of Humanist Criticism . . . . . .

Conclusion