Why does or should literature matter to us? What is its value and significance for human existence in the twenty-first century? New Literary Theory aims to breathe new life into the way we think about literature. The books in the series will be erudite but not narrowly specialist, informed by up-to-date research but not overburdened by scholarly reference. The spirit of the series is to emulate the vitality, experimentalism and freedom of literature itself, and to find fresh and accessible ways of writing about our engagements with it.
By Richard Shusterman
January 29, 2024
Philosophy and literature enjoy a close, complex relationship. Elucidating the connections between these two fields, this book examines the ways philosophy deploys literary means to advance its practice, particularly as a way of life that extends beyond literary forms and words into physical deeds,...
By Jeffrey R. Di Leo
September 25, 2023
This book introduces the reader to the ways in which happiness has been explored in philosophy and literature for thousands of years, in order to understand the newest theoretical approaches to happiness. Jeffrey R. Di Leo draws on its long and rich history as a window into our present obsession...
By Johanna Skibsrud
August 31, 2023
Combining personal narrative, interviews, and literary analysis, Fool elaborates the potential for fool figures from throughout literary history to reconfigure subject-object relations and point towards new possibilities in creative and critical thought. Drawing on Johanna Skibsrud’s experience in ...
By Hywel Dix
December 22, 2022
Autofiction and Cultural Memory breaks new ground in autofiction research by showing how it gives postcolonial writers a means of bearing witness to past cultural or political struggles, and hence of contributing to new forms of cultural memory. Most discussion of autofiction has treated it as an ...
By Tzachi Zamir
December 05, 2019
In Just Literature, Tzachi Zamir introduces the idea of 'philosophical criticism' as an innovative approach to interpreting literary texts. Throughout the book, Zamir uses the theme of justice as a case study for this new critical approach. By using ‘philosophical criticism’, Zamir posits that a ...