Between Philosophy and Poetry

"Between Philosophy and Poetry" examines the complex and controversial relation that has informed literary theory since ancient times: the difference between philosophy and poetry. The book explores three specific areas: the practice of writing with respect to orality; the interpretive modes of poetic and philosophical discourse as self-narration and historical understanding; how rhythm marks the differential spaces in poetry and philosophy. The book brings together some of the most prominent international scholars in the fields of philosophy and literature to examine the differences between orality and writing, the signs and traces of gender in writing, the historical dimension of the tension between philosophical and poetic language, and the future possibility of a musical thinking that would go beyond the opposition between philosophy and poetry. In the final instance, rhythm is the force to be reckoned with and is the essential element in an understanding of philosophy and poetry. Rhythm in effect provides a musical ethics of philosophy, for musical thinking goes beyond the metaphysical opposition between philosophy and poetry and sets the frame for post-philosophical practice. Contributors: Amittari F. Aviram, Babette Babich, Eve Taylor Bannet, Stephen Barker, Alexandro Carrera, Richard Detsch, Karen Feldman, David Halliburton, Richard Kearney, Carlo Sini, P. Christopher Smith, and Forrest Williams.