TY - JOUR AU - Patoine, Pierre-Louis AU - Hope, Jonathan PY - 2016/07/05 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Literature as a defining trait of the human umwelt: From and beyond Heidegger JF - Sign Systems Studies JA - SSS VL - 44 IS - 1/2 SE - Articles DO - 10.12697/SSS.2016.44.1-2.09 UR - https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2016.44.1-2.09 SP - 148-163 AB - Writers and readers of literature are, among other things, biological en tities that evolve under particular political (geographical/historical) conditions. A comparative study of certain texts by Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) can help us establish a fruitful interpretation of this threefold link between literary art, biology and politics. However, careful analysis reveals that Heidegger remains too rooted in an old-world, nationalistic and anthropocentric paradigm. We will attempt to rethink Heidegger’s assumptions on the grounds that literature, a cultural practice, enables us to delineate our natural environment. By reformulating Heidegger’s line of thought, we can more precisely address the plural structure of our biotic and political-literary experiences. ER -