The Identity of Literature

Contents: 1. Philosophy, Literature and Literary Criticism. 2. Humanism, Deconstruction, and Literature. 3. Saussure, Language and Literature—I. 4. Saussure, Language and Literature—II. 5. Fictionality and the Identity of Literature.
6. Literature and Experience. 7. How Literary is Literary Language?. 8. Critical Practice: Reading Derrida Reading Romeo and Juliet.

This is the first book of its kind which questions Derrida’s view of literature levelling all distinctions between literature and other disciplines. Setting forth those features of literature which mark it off from non-literature, the author argues that Derrida’s deconstruction is enshrined in a flawed view of language. Pleading stridently for a twofold division of language and drawing extensively on the philosophers and the linguists who support it, the author has advanced a fresh approach to literature as well as other disciplines. It is a defence of literature, and by implication, of logic and truth, in the age of deconstruction. (jacket)