Hogan, Patrick. Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Literature. Gainesville, FL: UP of Florida, 2001. 352 pp.

"Hogan writes an admirably clear prose. . . . This sober, readable book organizes and describes the connections between philosophy and literary theory with rare lucidity. Recommended for undergraduates and graduate students."--Choice

"Hogan surveys 2,500 years of philosophically oriented literary theory in a straightforward, energetic style. He pays especially thorough attention to 20th-century views and emphasizes what is currently relevant in all discussed theories, which include rarely studied Sanskrit and early Arabic texts as well. I highly recommend the book for use in both graduate and undergraduate courses on the history of literary theory and criticism."--Paul Hernadi, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Elegantly written and refreshingly independent of current critical fashion. Hogan is immensely well-informed and both lucid and controversial in his opinions. This book has the potential to reopen a dialogue among theorists."--R. B. Kershner, University of Florida

Reaching well beyond recent continental theorists, Hogan provides a lucid overview that carefully explicates and applies theories from Aristotle to Derrida and beyond while radically revising and extending the theory canon as well. Contemporary literary study constantly invokes philosophical concepts and presupposes familiarity with key thinkers. At the same time it often betrays a limited understanding of the concepts and thinkers from which it claims authority. Surveying 2,500 years of philosophically oriented literary theory, Patrick Hogan provides students and teachers of literature with both explication and application of the philosophical underpinnings of literary study.

Beginning with Greek, Arabic, and Sanskrit classics, Hogan explains the philosophical work that has been crucial to literary theory, moving through Kant and the German Idealists (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel) and post-Idealists (Nietzsche, Marx), to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the recent European schools (Foucaultian historicism, structuralism, deconstruction, and so on). He also presents the Anglo-American tradition, from logical positivism to Wittgenstein and the Ordinary Language theorists, from Chomskyan linguistics to cognitive science and philosophy of science.

Beyond the founding principles and general structure of these theories, Hogan illustrates their practical application and value with interpretive discussions of Othello and Agha Shahid Ali's "I Dream It Is Afternoon When I Return to Delhi." His straightforward, energetic style brings complex philosophical issues to bear on literary interpretation in readily accessible language.