Since the publication of his mammoth work, Being and Time, Martin Heidegger has remained one of the most influential figures in contemporary thought, and is a key influence for modern literary and cultural theory.
This guidebook provides an ideal entry-point for readers new to Heidegger, outlining such issues and concepts as:

• the limits of 'theory'
• the history of being
• the origin of the work of art
• language
• the literary work
• poetry and the political
• Heidegger's involvement with Nazism.

Fully updated throughout and featuring a new section on enviromental thought and ecocriticism, this guidebook clearly and concisely introduces Heidegger's crucial work relating to art, language and poetry, and outlines his continuing influence on critical theory.

Timothy Clark is based at Durham University. He is co-editor of the Oxford Literary Review and author of Derrida, Heidegger, Blanchot: Sources of Derrida's Notion and Practice of Literature (1992), The Theory of Inspiration (2000), The Poetics of Singularlity (2006) and The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment(2010).

Why Heidegger? 1. The Limits of the Theoretical 2. Deep History (Geschichte) 3. 'The Origin of the Work of Art' 4. The Death of Art? 5. Language, Tradition and the Craft of Thinking Interlude: The Hut at Todtnauberg 6. Heidegger and the Poetic 7. Nazism, Poetry and the Political 8. Heidegger, Environmentalism and Ecocriticism After Heidegger