ABSTRACT
In the analytic tradition, work on the ontology of literature traces back most directly to Nelson Goodman and Richard Wollheim. Goodman begins from the interesting and influential idea that some works of art are 'autographic' and others are allographic. Jerrold Levinson's ideas that works of art must be created, and that the source and circumstances of creation play a crucial role in the identity conditions for works of art, have been widely taken on board. Nonetheless, disagreement remains about whether a work of literature is essentially tied to that very author, or to that very time, place, and cultural context. Thinking of a work of literature just as a series of symbols elides the important role cultural background may play in making it the work of literature that it is. Some dependence on cultural context might already be implicit if people think of the text semantically, and think of meaning as culturally dependent.
