Dominic McIver Lopes is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Understanding Pictures (1996) and co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (2000) and Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts (2003). He is also co-editor, with Berys Gaut, of the Blackwell series New Directions in Aesthetics.

Acknowledgments.

Preface.

Part I: Classic Sources.

Introduction.

1. Republic: Plato.

2. Poetics: Aristotle.

3. Of Tragedy: David Hume.

4. The Birth of Tragedy: Friedrich Nietzsche.

5. Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming: Sigmund Freud.

Part II: Definition of Literature.

Introduction.

6. Spazio: Arrigo Lora-Totino.

7. What Isn't Literature?: E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

8. The Concept of Literature: Monroe Beardsley.

9. Literary Practice: Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen.

10. What Is Literature?: Robert Stecker.

Part III: Ontology of Literature.

Introduction.

11. Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote: Jorge Luis Borges.

12. Literary Works as Types: Richard Wollheim.

13. Literature: J. O. Urmson.

14. Can the Work Survive the World?: Nelson Goodman and Catherine Elgin.

15. Work and Text: Gregory Currie.

Part IV: Fiction.

Introduction.

16. Doonesbury: Garry Trudeau.

17. The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse: John Searle.

18. Truth in Fiction: David Lewis.

19. What Is Fiction?: Gregory Currie.

20. Fiction and Nonfiction: Kendall Walton.

21. Fictional Characters as Abstract Artifacts: Amie Thomasson.

22. Logic and Criticism: Peter Lamarque.

Part V: Emotion.

Introduction.

23. Applicant: Harold Pinter.

24. How Can We Be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina?: Colin Radford.

25. Fearing Fictionally: Kendall Walton.

26. The Pleasures of Tragedy: Susan Feagin.

27. Tragedy and the Community of Sentiment: Flint Schier.

Part VI: Metaphor.

Introduction.

28. Essay on What I Think about Most: Anne Carson.

29. Metaphor: Max Black.

30. What Metaphors Mean: Donald Davidson.

31. Metaphor and Feeling: Ted Cohen.

32. Metaphor and Prop Oriented Make-Believe: Kendall Walton.

Part VII: Interpretation.

Introduction.

33. Who Is Responsible in Ethical Criticism, And for What?: Wayne C. Booth.

34. Criticism as Retrieval: Richard Wollheim.

35. The Postulated Author: Critical Monism as a Regulative Ideal: Alexander Nehamas.

36. Art Interpretation: Robert Stecker.

37. Art, Intention, and Conversation: Noël Carroll.

38. Intention and Interpretation: Jerrold Levinson.

39. Style and Personality in the Literary Work: Jenefer Robinson.

Part VIII: Literary Values.

Introduction.

40. Xingu: Edith Wharton.

41. On the Cognitive Triviality of Art: Jerome Stolnitz.

42. Literature and Knowledge: Catherine Wilson.

43. Finely Aware and Richly Responsible: Martha Nussbaum.

44. Literature, Truth, and Philosophy: Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen.

45. The Ethical Criticism of Art: Berys Gaut.

Index