Rethinking the Relation between Philosophy and Literature: The Mortal Agony of Thought

This book rethinks the relation between philosophy and literature as an agonic relation, not privileging either side.Exploring a re-conception of the tragic and its relation to mortality, this work seeks to reposition the importance of philosophy, literature, and the relation between them within mortal existence.While contributing to knowledge of the tragic and the philosophy of mortal existence, this work also explores novel readings of Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Maurice Blanchot.The work develops through a series of cycles, elaborating key themes and questions for the development of a “tragic thought” emerging from the relation between philosophy and literature.The first cycle of chapters focuses on Maurice Blanchot’s The Instant of My Death, explicating the themes of writing and the impersonality which its language produces, as well as the paradox of mortality as a state of dying which is refused any experience of death.The next cycle of chapters regard Aristotle’s Poetics, exploring