
Contents
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1. Concepts of Literature: Preliminary Issues 1. Concepts of Literature: Preliminary Issues
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2. Defining the Art of Literature: Form and Function 2. Defining the Art of Literature: Form and Function
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3. Literature and Fiction 3. Literature and Fiction
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4. Procedural Definitions of Literature 4. Procedural Definitions of Literature
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5. Institutional Definitions of Literature 5. Institutional Definitions of Literature
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Bibliography Bibliography
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30 Literature
Get accessPaisley Livingston has a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. He is Chair Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Humanities at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He has held teaching and research positions at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, McGill University, l'Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), Siegen University, the University of Aarhus, Roskilde University Center, the University of Copenhagen, and Zinbin (Kyoto). His last book was Art and Intention (Oxford: Clarendon). His other books are Ingmar Bergman and the Rituals of Art (Cornell), Literary Knowledge (Cornell), Literature and Rationality (Cambridge), and Models of Desire (Johns Hopkins). He co-edited The Creation of Art (Cambridge) with Berys Gaut and The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film with Carl Plantinga.
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Published:02 September 2009
Cite
Abstract
Claims about the essence of literature have not always been motivated by the goal of identifying the proper object of a field of scientific research. Sometimes the point has been to denounce literature as a source of mimetic corruption and deceit. More frequently, great moral or epistemic value has been attributed to literature, where what is really meant is ‘literature at its best’. One example — among hundreds — is Maurice Blanchot's characterization of literature as a sceptical process crucial to a kind of existential authenticity. A plausible complaint about such theorizings is that they overlook the importance of recognizing the existence of bad literature, and of good literature that happens to lack those virtues the theorist cares to promote.
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