Abstract:

The concept of thing-in-itself was proposed by Kant to define the boundary of human rational cognition. Whether it exists or not is neither verifiable nor falsifiable, and human rationality cannot reach it, thus becoming an unresolved issue in the philosophical field. Can we imagine, present, and touch thingness (thing-in-itself) through literary narrative? This is the focus of Professor Tang Weisheng’s original and insightful thinking in his book A Study on Narrative of Thingness. The book breaks the bias of anthropocentrism and returns to thingness, exploring how literature imagines thing-in-itself from the perspective of narratology. It provides specific critical perspectives, methods, and paths for text interpretation, as well as macro theoretical categories and models for post anthropocentric narrative research. It is perhaps the very first attempt, both in theory and critical practice, towards the interpretation of narrative of thingness, which not only leads the domestic research, but also attracts much attention from international scholars on narrative.

Key words: thingness, thing-in-itself, A Study on Narrative of Thingness