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9781783489244

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Smart, provocative, and engaging, The Value of Literatureis a must-read for anyone with an interest in the philosophy of literature. McGregor reinvigorates debates on the cognitive value of literature, the ethical significance of narrative, the aesthetics of appreciation, and the nature of literary value itself.This book is a major achievement.--John Gibson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Louisville

McGregor's brilliant and careful defense of autonomism is an important addition to the philosophy of literature. Autonomists will be grateful for the sophistication, lucidity and depth in which their position finds its articulation. Opponents of autonomism (such as me) will discover a much stronger rival against which, from now on, they will have to argue... -- Tzachi Zamir, Associate Professor of English and General and Comparative Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Rafe McGregor argues for a conception of literary value that avoids the perils of both instrumentalism and formalism; preserving the autonomy of literature, while still maintaining the link to the world. He steers a clear path through a dense thicket, arguing his points with rigour. Whether or not you agree, you will be clearer for having read this book. -- Derek Matravers, Professor of Philosophy, The Open University Rafe McGregor offers a fresh, compelling vision of literature as having a distinctive value of its own not reducible to the more tractable values of science, psychology or religion. He identifies the roots of this value in the peculiar kinds of experiences that literary works afford when attention to formal artifice is fused with the pleasures of plot and character. He deftly combines analytical reasoning with illuminating literary examples. -- Peter Lamarque, Professor of Philosophy, University of York Smart, provocative, and engaging, The Value of Literature is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the philosophy of literature. McGregor reinvigorates debates on the cognitive value of literature, the ethical significance of narrative, the aesthetics of appreciation, and the nature of literary value itself. This book is a major achievement. -- John Gibson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Louisville

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Rafe McGregor is Lecturer in Criminology at Leeds Trinity University and Associate Lecturer in the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York. His publications include papers in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, British Journal of Aesthetics, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Orbis Litterarum.

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