Literature against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida A Defence of Poetry [Paperback]

Defence of literary art against the centuries-old drive to subsume literature into theory and philosophy.Arguing that the institutionalization of literary theory, particularly within American universities, has led to a intellectual sterility in which the actual power and scope of literature are overlooked, this text is essential reading for all teachers of literature and theory.Arguing that the institutionalization of literary theory, particularly within American universities, has led to a intellectual sterility in which the actual power and scope of literature are overlooked, this text is essential reading for all teachers of literature and theory.This timely book focuses on theory's relations to literary art. It argues that the institutionalization of literary theory, particularly in American universities, has led to an intellectual sterility in which the actual power and scope of literature are overlooked. The book demands to be read by all teachers of literature and theory, and by anyone concerned with the future of literary studies.Prologue: an ancient quarrel; 1. Rhetorics of blindness; 2. Polemics against presence; 3. Real history; 4. Foucault Inc.; 5. Under the influence. In a series of brilliantly argued reflections on critical terms like presence and blindness and insight, the author demonstrates the various ways that poetry, here a synecdoche for any creative cultural experience, defends itself against the life-draining powers of critical theory....Edmundson's elegant essay sounds a clarion call for a conversation between theory and poetry in which the voice of poetry both challenges theory and sustains itself. Masterful cultural criticism in the tradition of Leavis and Trilling. Choice By focusing on the condescension with which philosophy has, since Plato, treated poetry, Edmundson has given us a remarkably successful and genuinely original treatment of the relation between contemporary European philosophy and American literary criticism. RicharlÓ"