Product Description: The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature contains twenty-three newly commissioned essays by major philosophers and literary scholars that investigate literature as a form of attention to human life. Various forms of attention are considered under the headings of Genres (from Ancient Epic to the Novel and Contemporary Experimental Writing), Periods (from Realism and Romanticism to Postcolonialism), Devices and Powers (Imagination, Plot, Character, Style, and Emotion), and Contexts and Uses (in relation to inquiry, morality, and politics)...read more

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Product Description: The essays in this volume explore the ways in which traditional philosophical problems about self-knowledge, self-identity, and value have migrated into literature since the Romantic and Idealist periods. In a wide-ranging critical and philosophical discussion, the contributors offer a philosophical understanding of the roots and nature of contemporary literary and philosophical practice, and elaborate powerful and influential, but rarely decisively articulated, conceptions of the human subject and of value...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Richard Eldridge explores the ability of dense and formally interesting literature to respond to the complexities of modern life. Beyond simple entertainment, difficult modern works cultivate reflective depth and help their readers order and interpret their lives as subjects in relation to complex economies and technological systems...read more

These challenging essays defend Romanticism against its critics. They argue that Romantic thought, interpreted as the pursuit of freedom in concrete contexts, remains a central and exemplary form of both artistic work and philosophical understanding. Richard Eldridge traces the central features of Romantic thinking and shows that Romanticism is neither emptily literary and escapist nor dogmatically optimistic and sentimental. The first serious philosophical defense of the ethical ideals of Romanticism, this volume will appeal particularly to all professionals and students in philosophy, literature and aesthetics. (view table of contents)