The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature contains twenty-three essays by well-known philosophers and literary scholars. They investigate literature as a form of attention to human life and various forms of attention are considered under the headings of Genres (from Ancient Epic to the Novel and Contemporary Experimental Writing), Periods (from Realism and Romanticism to Postcolonialism), Devices and Powers (Imagination, Plot, Character, Style, and Emotion), and Contexts and Uses (in relation to inquiry, morality, and politics). The aim is track evaluating how specific modes and works of imaginative literature answer to important needs of human subjects. These essays show how and why literature matters for human cultural life.