Editorial Introduction

Abstract

The papers by Alfred Schutz in this volume have been selected because they deal with the specific features of the human condition on which literature focuses; because they present a theory of multiple realities, of which literature is one; because they describe in detail the Thou-relationship of which the interconnection between author and reader is an example; or because they are actually instances of how Schutz read literature, what he looked for or what impressed him, as he read, in particular, Goethe’s novels. In addition, these papers have been collected here because the first paper (itself originally a book), Life Forms and Meaning Structures, is out of print, and the second two papers represent translations of Schutz’s work by Professors Fred Kersten and Michael Barber that have not been previously published in English.