Over the last few decades, character-based criticism has been seen as either naive or obsolete. But now questions of character are attracting renewed interest. Making the case for a broad-based revision of our understanding of character, "Character"...

This radically original book argues for the power of ordinary language philosophy – a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell – to transform literary studies. In engaging and lucid prose, Toril Mo...