INGARDEN’S PROBLEM OF THE MODE OF EXISTENCE OF THE LITERARY WORK

Abstract

The problem of the mode of existence for the literary work as such is set by Ingarden within the framework of a larger controversy over the mode of existence of the real world. If one can establish that the world of literary phenomena necessarily dwells within a purely intentional mode of being, and as its indubitable exemplar, then one would be compelled to ascribe only some kind of real mode of being to the real world and to the objects that adhere to it. Following this Ingarden’s fundamental motivation, the goal of this paper consist in reading (1) his deliberations of the problem of the mode of existence belonging to the literary work from the perspective of (2) his general existential-ontological investigations. In respective Ingarden’s studies, (1) comes temporally beforehand and acts as the preparation for (2). We turn this succession around and apply (2) to (1), i.e. we affirm that which is (onto)logically earlier. We use an analytic-synthetic approach. In result we suggest a possible distribution of certain Ingarden’s purely intentional modes of being as adequate for the literary work as such (mode IVa) and for the objects presented in literary works (mode IVb), respectively.