Mode of Existence of a Literary Work of Art in View of the Modern Materialism

Abstract

The treatise endeavours to explain the relation among the basic ontological categories of the modem materialism and the ontology of a literary work of art as developed from different starting points (Heidegger, Hartmann, Ingarden, Sartre, Souriau). Consequently, Ingarden’s ontological premises are analysed; his thesis of a literary work of art as a "merely intentional subject" is opposed by a new, different one, based on the modern materialism: regarding its ontology, a literary work of art is composed of two strata, the phenomenal and the quasi-phenomenal one; furthermore, its primary and secundary existence should be discerned in its ontological status. From the proposed model, crucial consequences may be derived with regard to the historical comprehension of a literary work of art and to the elucidation of the problems concerning literary hermeneutics.