Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides new work being done on rhetoric and philosophy or philosophy of literature; lines of Continental theory; the current mania for deconstruction all of these areas signal to us that the demarcations between philosophy and literature, never strong in the first place, are now more blurred than ever. It examines the ancient battle between philosophy and literature. The book examines the work of five women writers of the twentieth century taken as exemplary Margaret Drabble, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Toni Cade Bambara and Elena Poniatowska. The sort of exercise in fantasy that proves fruitful for political discussion is, of course, a somewhat rare instance of actual literary endeavor. Contemporary work has been done on the boundary of philosophy and literature precisely because so many philosophers have thought that literature has a great deal to offer on a conceptual level.