Overview

A cross-cultural study that explores and redefines what philosophy, philosophizing, and philosophers are through the lens of literature. The academic discipline of philosophy may tell us, too rigidly, what a philosopher is or should be; but fictional narration often upholds the core conundrums of humankind in which philosophy germinates. This collection of essays explores whether a study of ‘philosophers’ at a planetary scale, or at least on a broad cross-cultural spectrum, can decouple philosophy from its academic aspect and lend it a more inclusive domain. Contributors to this volume play with three conceptual poles, making them interact with each other and get modified through this interaction: ‘fiction’, ‘narrative’ and ‘philosopher’. How do these three terms get semantically modified and broadened in scope when we speak of the figures of philosophers in imaginative writing? How do these terms assume different connotations in different cultural contexts, interacting with the multiplicity of not just ‘thought’, but also the media and tools of ‘thought’? Do we always think only rationally? Or do we also think with and through emotively powerful images, symbols and tropes? In the end, Finding Philosophers in Global Fiction insists on the need to ‘de-elitize’ and democratize the concept of a ‘philosopher’ by reflecting on the possibility of seeing a philosopher as one who sees things clearly, from any vantage point.

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Reviews

The 21st century needs this timely cross-cultural reinvention of philosophers, dead and alive, in fiction and lived experience, for deep thought and everyday dialogue in the Anthropocene. * Candice Goucher, Professor Emerita of History, Washington State University, USA * Finding Philosophers in Global Fiction presents a conceptual multi-perspectivity: it is cross-cultural, articulating works from Indian, Japanese, various European and American contexts; it is multidisciplinary, analysing literary texts and films; and it pays attention to various philosophical streams, ranging from classical Indian or Greek philosophy and Neo-Confucianism to more modern schools of thought, such as existentialism, post-structuralism or post-humanism. This is an original and impressive collection, bringing new approaches to challenging questions about the mutual influences on literature and philosophy. * Blanka Knotková-Capková, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic *

The 21st century needs this timely cross-cultural reinvention of philosophers, dead and alive, in fiction and lived experience, for deep thought and everyday dialogue in the Anthropocene. * Candice Goucher, Professor Emerita of History, Washington State University, USA *

Author Information

Anway Mukhopadhyay is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Debashree Dattaray is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, India. Saptarshi Mallick is Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies, University of Graz, Austria. He is on lien from Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, University of North Bengal, India.

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