A Sense of the World: Essays on Fiction, Narrative, and Knowledge (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

A team of leading contributors from both philosophical and literary backgrounds have been brought together in this impressive book to examine how works of literary fiction can be a source of knowledge. Together, they analyze the important trends in this current popular debate.

The innovative feature of this volume is that it mixes work by literary theorists and scholars with work of analytic philosophers that combined together provide a comprehensive statement of the variety of ways in which works of fiction can engage questions of worldly interest. It uses the problem of cognitive value to explore:

• literature’s contribution to ethical life
• literature’s ability to engage in social and political critique
• the role narrative plays in opening up possibilities of moral, aesthetic, experience and selfhood

This remarkable volume will attract the attention of both literature and philosophy scholars with its statement of the various ways that literature and life take an interest in one another.

John Gibson is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Temple University, USA. He is co-editor (with Wolfgang Huemer) of The Literary Wittgenstein (Routledge, 2004).

Wolfgang Huemer is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He is author of The Constitution of Consciousness. A Study on Analytic Phenomenology (Routledge, 2004).

Luca Pocci received his PhD in Comparative Literature and currently teaches in Siena. The scope of his research interests range from literary theory (with a particular focus on thematic criticism) to interdisciplinary fields, such as the interplay between the discourses of fiction and historiography.