Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defence of Poetry

Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defence of Poetry
ISBN-10
0521485320
ISBN-13
9780521485326
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
243
Language
English
Published
1995-06-15
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
Mark Edmundson

Description

This timely book argues that the institutionalisation of literary theory, particularly within American and British academic circles, has led to a sterility of thought which ignores the special character of literary art. Mark Edmundson traces the origins of this tendency to the ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry, in which Plato took the side of philosophy; and he shows how the work of modern theorists - Foucault, Derrida, de Man and Bloom - exhibits similar drives to subsume poetic art into some 'higher' kind of thought. Challenging and controversial, this book should be read by all teachers of literature and of theory, and by anyone concerned about the future of institutionalised literary studies.

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