The Place of the Concept of “Freeplay” in Modern Literary Theory: A Study in the Aesthetics and Hermeneutics of Kant, Gadamer and Derrida

The thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction presents an overall picture of the subject matter of the thesis and argues that the unconditioned movement of freeplay works as a defining moment and a point of distinctiveness in Kant's aesthetics, Gadamer's hermeneutics and Derrida's deconstruction. Chapter one discusses freeplay as a driving force behind Kant's subjectivity. Chapter two proceeds to chart the place of the movement of play in Gadamer's hermeneutics and to what degree such a position seems to distinguish Gadamer's ontological view of art from Kant's transcendental perspectives. Chapter three considers the freeplay of traces and differance as the basis for Derrida's decenterment. Next, Derrida's position of decenterment is being analyzed in relation to Kant's and Gadamer's positions of play. Finally, the conclusion sums up the main results of the thesis.