'Ein-Bild-hielt-uns-gefangen': On Wittgenstein's notion of Witz as a therapy against intellectual rigidity

Wittgenstein's later philosophy, especially his notion of Witz, can fruitfu lly be applied to the central questions of literary theory. Every language user plays a certain language-game (Sprachspiel) with a special Witz. The W itz of the game constitutes the game's special character from which one can derive whether a rule of the game is more or less important. Interpretors of language (and literature) must heed the Witz of their own interpretation which is responsible for their understanding of a text. The implications o f Witz are examined in Peter Bichsel's Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch, Clifford Ge ertz' and Wittgenstein's discussions about magic and religion, Johann Peter Hebel's Kannitverstan, and H.G. Gadamer's interpretation of the poem 'Steh en' by Paul Celan.