Philosophers' Poets

David Wood

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032769509
• eBook ISBN: 9781040029886
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Poetry
• Index: Literature

First published in 1990, Philosophers' Poets is a collection of case studies of philosophers' readings of poets and other distinctive writers. There are those, for example, who find in literary examples ways of exploring the concrete significance of philosophical assertions or distinctions. Others find in poetic discourse linguistic resources simply not available to philosophy, yet of vital importance to it. This is particularly true of philosophers of the limit, such as Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas and Adorno, for whom the very possibility of philosophy was in question. Despite the diversity of subjects covered, the collection maintains an integrity and identity. Above all, it shows how contemporary Continental philosophy raises the issue of philosophy and literature anew in a way that is appealing and challenging.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on the Contributors
• Introduction: Thinking Poetic Writing
• 1 Literary Attestation in Philosophy: Heidegger’s Footnote on Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’
• 2 A Linear Narrative? Blanchot with Heidegger in the Work of Levinas
• 3 Narcissism and Dispersion in Heidegger’s 1953 Trakl Interpretation
• 4 Derrida, Mallarmé, and Anatole
• 5 On the Subject of the Subject: Derrida on Sollers in La dissémination
• 6 Sartre and the Language of Poetry
• 7 On Science, Poetry, and ‘the honey of being’: Bachelard’s Shelley
• 8 Philosophy's Refuge: Adorno in Beckett
• Index