A Defense of Poetry : Reflections on the Occasion of Writing (Hardcover)

This book argues that literature can be defined—pragmatist and historicist arguments notwithstanding—and that in its definition its unique value can be discovered. The author identifies literature ontologically as a sign of the preconceptual, as the "ostensive moment" that discloses neither the purpose nor the structure of existence but existence itself, revealed in its nonhuman register.