Books by Thomas Phillips

Set in Montreal, Ensemble takes us through the throes of existential crises as lives and marriages are overturned by a man's restless yearning. A philosopher is suddenly forced to face the questions he lectures on when they materialize out of the theoretical and into the practical after he falls for a student in his class. Meanwhile his wife, an accomplished musician is left to deal with the disintegration of their marriage and the new silence that descends upon her life as she dissects her husband's inner workings and confronts the object of his desire.Told in clinical honesty, Ensemble deconstructs love and relationships in the 21st century.

Liminal Fictions in Postmodern Culture examines distinctive literary, musical, and cinematic narratives that seek to inspire critical thought and conduct through provocation. From Gogol's Dead Souls to Salinger's Franny and Zooey , Phillips argues liminal narratives offer an antidote to the modern commodification of the self.

Lauded by critics yet largely unappreciated by fans of horror and "weird fiction," T.E.D. Klein is considered one of the great horror writers, despite his scant body of work. Exploring a range of topics from religious fundamentalism and Right Wing extremism to fashionable pessimism and the rise of "digital humanities", this book argues that Klein's work is a prime example of "critical horror".

Utilizing a wide range of theoretical and creative texts, Phillips offers an examination of subjectivity as considered, enacted, and embodied, through the frame of minimalist aesthetics. Provocatively, he makes the claim that lived experience is capable of being refined according to the paradoxically rich parameters of a minimalist aesthetic.