The Philosophy of Literature

“This little book conveys fresh, major insights about the possible relations between literature and philosophy—between real things and ideas—and the common medium we use to express and explore them both, language. Verene beautifully exemplifies these multiple relations by examining four specific literary works (Borges, Joyce, Sandburg, Brant) through a sophisticated but accessible philosophical lens. A lucid, foundational treatment that will enlighten the student and delight the expert.”


—James Engell, Gurney Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature,


Harvard University





“To read a book by Donald Verene is to experience an entire education writ small. In this wonderful book he again demonstrates the principle that eloquence is the skill to put the whole that is wisdom into words. Through masterful readings of four texts, he shows four ways in which philosophy and literature relate to each other, illuminating ethics, metaphysics, politics, and phenomenology. He writes as a poet-turned-philosopher and shows us through his own approach to the texts what it means for reading to be an act of transcendence. As a great teacher, and an inimitable guide to the speculative and poetic imagination, Verene resists the genius of mediocrity, and through his own example he encourages a return to philosophy as a linguistic art.”


—Raymond Barfield, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Christian Philosophy, Duke University