Table of Contents

Acknowledgements, Abbreviations of works by Wallace Stevens, Advice to the reader, 1. Or so we say – twenty-one propositions, 2. Poetry, philosophy and life as it is, 3. Sudden rightnesses, 4. Wallace Stevens’s intimidating thesis, 5. The twofold task of poetry, 6. The thing itself and its seasons, Conclusion, Afterword: Calm – on Terrence Malick, Thanks, Notes, Bibliography, Index

About the Author

New School University

Reviews

'Things Merely Are is very much a manifesto that aims to break the frame of philosophical thinking within the English-speaking tradition. And in the bargain Critchley gives us a fresh reading of Wallace Steven's work that academic literary criticism desperately needs. My hope is that this book is not just a one-trick pony but the opening of a philosophical investigation into literary modernism.' - Notre Dame Philosophical Review