Philosophy of the Novel

This book explores the aesthetics of thenovel from the perspective of Continental European philosophy, presenting a theory on the philosophicaldefinition and importance of the novel as a literary genre. It analyses a variety of individuals whose work is reflected in boththeoretical literary criticism and Continental European aesthetics,includingMikhail Bakhtin, Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. Moving through material from eighteenth century and ancient Greek philosophy and aesthetics, the book providescomprehensive coverage of the major positions on the philosophy of thenovel.Distinctive features includethe importance of Vico's view of the epic to understanding thenovel, the importance of Kierkegaard's view of the novel and irony along with his other aestheticviews, the different possibilities associated with seeing the novel as 'mimetic' and the importance of Proust in understanding the genre in all its philosophical aspects, relating the issue ofthe philosophical aesthetics of the novel with the issue of philosophy written as a novel andthe interaction between these two alternative positions.