Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou have never been discussed so lucidly as in this brilliant comparison, which brings out the salient features of two major bodies of thought. Not afraid to be utterly straightforward in his exposition of their similarities and differences, Lecercle shows that their contrasting engagements with literature can help us get to the heart of their philosophical projects. Once I started reading I did not want to stop. A tour de force which is destined to become a classic assessment of these two thinkers.

Professor Jonathan Culler, Cornell University

Why do philosophers read literature? How do they read it? And to what extent does their philosophy derive from their reading of literature? Anyone who has read contemporary European philosophers has had to ask such questions.

This book is the first attempt to answer them, by considering the 'strong readings' Alain Badiou and Gilles Deleuze impose on the texts they read. Lecercle demonstrates that philosophers need literature, as much as literary critics need philosophy: it is an exercise not in the philosophy of literature (where literature is a mere object of analysis), but in philosophy and literature, a heady if unusual mix.

Jean-Jacques Lecercle is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nanterre, Paris.

Jean-Jacques Lecercle is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nanterre, Paris.