Maps out how new developments in 21st-century philosophy intersect with the study of literature
- Includes an orientational introduction by Claire Colebrook, one of the world's foremost authorities in the field
- Engages dynamic debates about what it means to be human in face of recent developments in science and technology, the repercussions of anthropogenic climate change, and the overall nature of our contemporary moment
- Draws on new developments in philosophy including speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, the new materialisms, posthumanism, analytic philosophy of language and metaphysics, and ecophilosophy
- Offers close readings of a range of texts from 19th- and 20th-century classics such as Walden, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Nineteen Eighty-Four to contemporary novels such as A Visit from the Goon Squad, Oryx and Crake and The Stone Gods
This forward-thinking, non-traditional reference work uniquely maps out how new developments in 21st century philosophy are entering into dialogue with the study of literature. Going beyond the familiar methods of analytic philosophy, and with a breadth greater than traditional literary theory, this collection looks at the profound consequences of the interaction between philosophy and literature for questions of ethics, politics, subjectivity, materiality, reality and the nature of the contemporary itself.
Literary Case Studies
Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
So Close by Hélène Cixous,
10:04 by Ben Lerner
Kapow! by Adam Thirlwell
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays
‘Mississippi’ by William Faulkner
The Flood by Maggie Gee
The Ship by Antonia Honeywell
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Solar by Ian McEwan
When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
William Wordsworth’s poetry
Contributors
Ridvan Askin, University of Basel, Switzerland
R. Scott Bakker, critically acclaimed novelist and independent scholar
Frida Beckman, Stockholm University, Sweden
R. M. Berry, Florida State University (Emeritus), USA
Charlie Blake, University of West London, UK
Astrid Bracke, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Rey Chow, Duke University, NC, USA
Claire Colebrook, Penn State University, USA
Arne De Boever, California Institute of the Arts, USA
Nicky Gardiner, University of Huddersfield, UK
Alison Gibbons, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Evan Gottlieb, Oregon State University, USA
Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of Architecture, USA
Birgit Mara Kaiser, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Ingeborg Löfgren, Uppsala University, Sweden
Robert P. Marzec, Purdue University, IN, USA
Helen Palmer, Kingston University London, UK
Adrian Parr, University of Texas Arlington, USA
Graham Priest, City University of New York, USA and University of Melbourne (Emeritus), Australia
David Rudrum. University of Huddersfield, UK
Babette B. Tischleder, University of Göttingen, Germany
Josh Toth, MacEwan University, Canada
Robin van den Akker, Erasmus University College Rotterdam, Netherlands
Timotheus Vermeulen, University of Oslo, Norway
Bryan Vescio, High Point University, NC, USA
David Watson, Uppsala University, Sweden
