Sum 1
LDCL5072A Literature and Philosophy, 2022/23
First summative essay: ‘The literary’ and ‘the philosophical’
Word limit: 1,000 words (+/-10 %)
30% of your final mark
Due by 3pm on the 25th of October 2022
To be submitted via Blackboard
Task: Write a 1000-word essay discussing either the notion of
‘the literary’ or the notion of ‘the philosophical’. Your essay
should draw on at least two of the set texts from Weeks 1-4
and on a specific example of what you consider to be literary
or philosophical practice (i.e., a literary text, a piece of
philosophy, etc.).
If you choose to write about ‘the literary’,
your essay should engage with the following questions: how
have critics attempted to define ‘the literary’, and what is your
position on these attempts? What is your understanding of
‘literariness’, and how does a particular example of literary
practice allow you to illustrate it?
You are not expected to offer a definitive answer to the
question of what literature is, but you are expected to
critically engage with existing attempts at defining the
literary, and you should develop a coherent argument in
your piece.
o Texts to use:
Jaima
Marx
<JAIMA>
Main Formative points - only use if they help!
Drawing main on Jaima's text with the purpose of agreeing that Literature
can be a part of philosophy in more substantial ways than merely ethics as
Calvino believes.
Literature can be a form of philosophical expression and can be a method of
exemplifying difficult concepts in order to inform (one of the main goals
Murdoch believes philosophical writing aims towards) - it is this that link the
two and often make it difficult to have one without the other.
LDCL5072A Literature and Philosophy, 2022/23
First summative essay: ‘The literary’ and ‘the philosophical’
Word limit: 1,000 words (+/-10 %)
30% of your final mark
Due by 3pm on the 25th of October 2022
To be submitted via Blackboard
Task: Write a 1000-word essay discussing either the notion of
‘the literary’ or the notion of ‘the philosophical’. Your essay
should draw on at least two of the set texts from Weeks 1-4
and on a specific example of what you consider to be literary
or philosophical practice (i.e., a literary text, a piece of
philosophy, etc.).
If you choose to write about ‘the literary’,
your essay should engage with the following questions: how
have critics attempted to define ‘the literary’, and what is your
position on these attempts? What is your understanding of
‘literariness’, and how does a particular example of literary
practice allow you to illustrate it?
You are not expected to offer a definitive answer to the
question of what literature is, but you are expected to
critically engage with existing attempts at defining the
literary, and you should develop a coherent argument in
your piece.
o Texts to use:
Jaima
Marx
<JAIMA>
Main Formative points - only use if they help!
Drawing main on Jaima's text with the purpose of agreeing that Literature
can be a part of philosophy in more substantial ways than merely ethics as
Calvino believes.
Literature can be a form of philosophical expression and can be a method of
exemplifying difficult concepts in order to inform (one of the main goals
Murdoch believes philosophical writing aims towards) - it is this that link the
two and often make it difficult to have one without the other.
