On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and Interpretation

This book examines the later work of Paul Ricoeur, particularly his major work, "Time and Narrative". The essays, including three pieces by Ricoeur himself, consider this important study, extending and developing the debate it has inspired. Paul Ricoeur's study of the intertwining of time and narrative proposes and examines the possibility that narrative could remedy a fatal deficiency in any purely phenomenological approach. He analyzed both literary and historical writing, from Proust to Braudel, as well as key figures in the history of philosophy: Aristotle, Augustine, Kant, Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger. His own recognition of his limited success in expunging aporia opens onto the positive discovery of the importance of narrative identity, on which Ricoeur writes here.

David Wood teaches Continental Philosophy at the University of Warwick, where he is Director of the Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature. He is the author of Exceedingly Nietzsche (1988) and The Provocation of Levinas (1988), editor of Writing the Future (1990), and co-editor of Philosopher's Poets (1990), all published by Routledge.