By exploring central issues in the philosophy of literature, illustrated by a wide range of novels, poems, and plays, Philosophy of Literature gets to the heart of why literature matters to us and sheds new light on the nature and interpretation of literary works.

• Provides a comprehensive study, along with original insights, into the philosophy of literature
• Develops a unique point of view - from one of the field's leading exponents
• Offers examples of key issues using excerpts from well-known novels, poems, and plays from different historical periods

Peter Lamarque is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. He is the author of Fictional Points of View (1996) and co-author, with Stein Haugom Olsen, of Truth, Fiction and Literature: A Philosophical Perspective (1994). He was editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics from 1995-2008, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. He edited Philosophy and Fiction (1983), Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Language (1997), and (with Stein Haugom Olsen) Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, An Anthology (Blackwell, 2003).