This book explores concepts of rationality drawn from philosophy and the social sciences, in relation to traditions of literary enquiry. The author surveys basic assumptions and questions in philosophical accounts of action, in decision theory, and in the theory of rational choice. He gives examples ranging from Icelandic sagas to Poe and Beckett, and examines some situations and actions drawn from American and European fiction in order to analyze issues raised by contemporary models of agency. Challenging poststructuralism's irrationalist images of science, this innovative study crosses the boundary between literary and philosophical studies in a bold interdisciplinary spirit.

Introduction: literature and rationality; Part I. Theories and Questions: 1. Rationality: some basic issues; 2. Agency, rationality, and literary knowledge; Part II. Textual Models: 3. Naturalism and the question of agency; 4. Agent's rationality; 5. Plans and irrationality; 6. Science, reason and society Coda: 'Der Bau'; Notes; Bibliography.