Why are we and, in particular, why are philosophers and linguists so fascinated by nonsense? Why do Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear appear in so may otherwise dull and dry academic books? In this amusing, yet rigorous new book, Jean-Jacques Lercercle shows how the genre of nonsense was contructed and why it has proved so enduring and enlightening for linguistics and philosophy. Lecercle claims that nonsense makes sense, philosophically speaking. Nonsense texts reverse the ususal positioning of text by reading their theory in advance: they are the reflexive, active interface between literarure, linguistics and philosophy of language. Nonsense texts, like all texts, must be read in the light of philsosphical and linguistic concepts, but they turn the theory back upon itself to open up new ways of thinking and theorising about language. The Philosophy of Nonsense examines the philosophical pillars which structure the nonsense text, but also explores the innovative philosophy which nonsense gives rise to. Lercercle asserts that this new philosophy is no less than a confrontational reappraisal of the analytic and continental traditions of the philosophy of language.
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