Příliš hlučná prázdnota - Mezery, otřesy a smysl v literárním díle – Tlustý Jan (2022)

How important is what the text does not say? And how does literary theory think about the un(said)? In every narrative, to a greater or lesser extent, what literary theory traditionally refers to as places of indeterminacy, empty spaces, or gaps appears. Readers react to them in various ways: they infer the unsaid, formulate hypotheses, engage their literary and cultural knowledge, but they also respond emotionally and physically. Moreover, they may be exposed to the experience of emptiness, uncertainty, and ignorance. The book reflects on these issues against the backdrop of the history of literary theory, transitioning from classical concepts to current research in second-generation cognitive science, while also addressing concepts that relate filling gaps to ethics. In the concluding chapter, the author views the gaps from another angle: the experience of ignorance is presented as an experience of shaking the certainties of meaning or as an entry into the realm of Patočka's leaning into the night, through which the world can remind the reader of itself as a place where the gift of revelation occurs.