Logic and Literary Form

What does logic have to do with literature? From Chaucer to Carnap, Whitman to Wittgenstein, De Morgan to DeLillo, the essays in this special issue identify affinities between formal logic and literary form, trace reciprocal influences between writers and logicians, and model ways of reading that might be energized by an appeal to logical methods. In turn, the contributors explore how literary criticism has been institutionally shadowed by a logical unconscious, from the New Criticism and (post)structuralism to more recent debates about historicism and formalism. The authors showcase the interdisciplinary efforts of literary critics and philosophers working in the thriving subfield they term “logic and literature.”

Contributors: Jeffrey Blevins, Kristin Boyce, Andrea Henderson, David Kurnick, R. D. Perry, Megan Quigley, Michael LeMahieu, Charlie Tyson, Daniel Williams, Johanna Winant