Overview

This book examines the relationship between philosophy and literature. It encompasses political philosophy, the philosophy of language, ethics, and the philosophy of mind. It also includes a section on philosophical interpretations of literature. This volume offers analytically acute and culturally rich ways of understanding how it is that literature can illuminate philosophical topics and what kind of distinctive conceptual progress is thereby secured. Given the extremely widespread interest in how literature can assist in the search for meaning and truth, this volume will strike resonant chords far and wide. Literature in the Light of Philosophy is essential reading for all scholars and researchers of aesthetics, especially those focusing on literary aesthetics. It is also ideal for literature scholars with an interest in the relationship between philosophy and literature.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Garry L. Hagberg
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032092564

ISBN 10:   3032092566
Pages:   331
Publication Date:   07 April 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Dawning of Philosophical Aspects in Literature.- Part I: Literature and Political Reflection.- 2. The Richardsonian Republic.- 3. The Fall and the New Paradox of Liberalism.- 4. The Sovereign and the Virtuoso: What Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler Tells Us about Autonomy.- Part II. The Philosophy of Language within Literature.- 5. Exploring Indeterminacy: Jonas Lüscher, Radical Interpretation, and Passing Theories of Love.- 6. Maisie Farange as “Final Arbiter”: A Davidsonian Approach to Henry James’s What Maisie Knew.- 7.  Free Indirect Discourse in Shakespeare.- Part III. Literature, Ethics, and Moral Psychology.- 8. Crime, Character, and Repentance in Dostoevsky and Dreiser: Varieties of Moral Purpose in Fictional Literature.- 9. Is Virtue Stupid?.- 10. “By My Own Hand”: Why the Good Guys Cannot Always Win.- Part IV. Philosophical Readings.- 11. The Significance of Christoph Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice in Albert Camus’ Plague.- 12. Seized by Sensation, Learning by Heart: On Simone Weil's ""Essay on the Notion of Reading"".- 13. Klara and the Reader: Artificial Subjectivity in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.- Part V. Minds Depicted.- 14. Becoming Post-Postmodern: The New Detective Esoteric Mystery.- 15. Top-Down Perception in Proust and Aristotle.- 16. The Linguistic Mind: Arrival and Our Life Within, and Across, Time.

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Author Information

Garry L. Hagberg is the James H. Ottaway Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at Bard College; his most recent book is Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood (2023).

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