At 4 p.m. on March 15th, Toril Moi will give a talk at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. The talk is organized by the English Department, and will take place in the Nau Auditorium, South Lawn. The title of the talk will be: “Ordinary as Opposed to What? Ordinary Language Philosophy, Literary Theory and Critique.” The talk will deal with common prejudices against ordinary language philosophy, focusing on three (mistaken) beliefs:  1. Ordinary language is propositional (referential, descriptive) language, and thus the opposite of (for example) literary language. 2. To defend ordinary language is to defend common sense, which everyone knows is conservative. 3. Ordinary language philosophy is incompatible with critique of social norms or institutions, since it takes language to be grounded in our “forms of life,” which themselves can’t be challenged.