Empirical Truths and Critical Fictions

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The book explores the tension between traditional English empiricism, particularly Locke's view of self-understanding through observation, and the critiques posed by Romantic poets and German philosophers. Cathy Caruth reinterprets Locke's work as a narrative where "experience" holds a complex and uncanny significance. She examines how Wordsworth, Kant, and Freud engage with this narrative, not merely as opponents of empiricism but as grappling with the intricate relationship between language and experience in their own writings.