• Contributors


• Introduction--Philosophy and Literature as Forms of Attention


• Richard Eldridge


• Part I. Genres


• 1. Epic


• Gregory Nagy


• 2. Lyric


• Susan Stewart


• 3. Tragedy


• J. M. Bernstein


• 4. Comedy


• Timothy Gould


• 5. Pastoral


• Mark Payne


• 6. Satire


• R. Bracht Branham


• 7. The Novel


• Anthony J. Cascardi


• 8. Autobiography and Biography


• Stephen Mulhall


• 9. Experimental Writing


• R. M. Berry


• Part II. Periods and Modes


• 10. Realism


• Bernard Harrison


• 11. Romanticism


• Nikolas Kompridis


• 12. Idealism


• Toril Moi


• 13. Modernism


• Philip Weinstein


• 14. Postcolonialism


• Simona Bertacco


• Part III. Devices and Powers


• 15. Imagination


• Kirk Pillow


• 16. Plot


• Alan Singer


• 17. Character


• Stanley Bates


• 18. Style


• Charles Altieri


• 19. Emotion, Memory, and Trauma


• Glenn W. Most


• Part IV. Contexts and Uses


• 20. Literature and Knowledge


• John Gibson


• 21. Literature and Morality:


• Ted Cohen


• 22. Literature and Politics


• Fred Rush


• Index

Richard Eldridge is Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College.

This volume contains twenty-three newly commissioned essays by major philosophers and literary scholars that investigate literature as a form of attention to human life. Various forms of attention are considered under the headings of Genres, Periods, Devices and Powers, and Contexts and Uses.