Peter Lamarque is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. He joined the Department of Philosophy in 2000. Prior to that, he was Ferens Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hull and Head of the Philosophy Department between 1995 and 2000. He was a lecturer and then senior lecturer at the University of Stirling between 1972 and 1995. From 1995 to 2008 he was Editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics.
Found this really interesting, and thought it really helped get a person up to speed on many of thoughts and arguments within the Philosophy of Literature, and explained them really well, offering a solid set of arguments against and in support of them, affording the reader a clear (and fairly persuasive) understanding of how Lamarque has arrived at his opinion, without feeling too forceful. I think there are a few ideas that have not been explored as much as I would like, but then that's in the nature of philosophy: there's always one more question to be answered.
Lamarque provides an excellent introduction to the philosophy of literature from an analytic perspective. Thus, one shouldn't expect too much discussion of continental views. Nevertheless, there is some engagement with the continental tradition, but the approach is significantly analytic.
He surveys throughout the book many of the major positions and arguments. I used this book to introduce the philosophy of literature to my students, and I felt like it did its job well. Still, my students complained that the book wasn't as accessible--but I think this is simply because it does require some familiarity with philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology (which all of my students weren't as familiar with).
Overall, I highly recommend the book as an introduction to the field. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was provocative and compelling.
A very good introduction in the main debates in the philosophy of literature. Unfortunately, to a large extent references to continental thinkers and views are missing.
A long dense exploration into contemporary and analytic understandings of literary theory argument. This argument of Lamarque himself is to be missing though, and in place of a positive program we have a semi-textbook