Contributors Alexander Nehamas and Denis Dutton critique such fundamental notions as "author" and "text," while Mary Bittner Wiseman outlines a postsubjective theory of the self, drawing on the work of Roland Barthes. Stanley Rosen presents a powerful criticism of hermeneutics directed at its philological proponents and its Derridean opponents alike. Charles Altieri and Martha Craven Nussbaum map the relations of ethics and aesthetics, and Arthur C. Danto offers an overview of the relationships between philosophy and literature in an already celebrated essay. Anthony J. Cascardi provides a series of introductions which guide the reader through these and other contributions.