In the present book, Philippe Sambo, a distinguished scholar of the relationships between philosophy and literature, delves into attempts to approach significant literary texts (Proust, Beckett, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, etc.) by French philosophers in the latter half of the twentieth century (Derrida, Deleuze, Marc, Ricoeur, Deleuze, Badiou, and Foucault) in a fruitful engagement with German philosophers (Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, or Heidegger) on the relevant issue.

Sambo categorically rejects the view of philosophy and literature as radically distinct disciplines, as well as the various attempts to subsume one under the other. Endorsing Masere's analyses of literary philosophy, he argues that it is beneficial for philosophy not to consider literature as an object of reflection but to recognize the theoretical scope of specific literary works.

Philosophy can thus not only subject its concepts and the nature of its activity to critical scrutiny but can also expand by recognizing that it must be able to practice itself on literary works.