On Literary Theory and Philosophy

The principle aim of this book is to explore the relationship between contemporary literary theory and analytic philosophy. The volume addresses this issue in two ways: first, through four exchanges between, on the one hand, proponents of avant-garde literary theory and, on the other, proponents of analytic philosophy (or of related literary critical positions); and second, through three cross-disciplinary essays on the relationship in question. Central topics in the volume include Self, Ethics, Interpretation, Language and characterisations of 'analytic' and 'continental' philosophy.

Acknowledgements - Notes on Contributors - Introduction; R.Freadman & L.Reinhardt - SECTION 1: EXCHANGES - Self - Initiating Paper: Deconstruction and Critical Practice: Gayatri Spivak on The Prelude; R.Freadman & S.Miller - Response: On the Alien: Interpretation After Deconstruction; I.Saunders - Ethics - Initiating Paper: On F.R. Leavis and the Moral in Literature; C.Cordner - Response: On Being Proper; K.Hart - Interpretation - Initiating Paper: Interpreting Fictions; G.Currie - Response: Remarks on Currie; A.Freadman - Language - Initiating Paper: Xenophobia: At the Border of Philosophy and Literature; R.Ferrell - Response: Theories of Meaning and Literary Theory; S.Gaukroger - SECTION 2: ESSAYS SINGULAR - Limited Think: How Not to Read Derrida; C.Norris - The Two Paradigms: Is a Dialogue Possible?; H.Ruthrof - The Genealogy of Genealogy: Interpretation in Nietzsche's Second Untimely Meditation and in The Genealogy of Morals; A.Nehamas - Notes