Examining Kant as a thinker of literary practice, rhetoric and style, Assistant Professor of German Karen Feldman aims to contribute to reemerging debates concerning historicism and formalism in modern literary theory and philosophy. In artistic and literary circles, Kant is considered a progenitor of formalist modernism, as his philosophical works are generally perceived as being concerned with form, abstraction and rationality rather than doctrine and content. However, in her project, The Importance of the Means: On Kant and Literary Practice. Professor Feldman explores the ways in which rhetoric and style are indeed at issue in Kant's work. In addition to noting the highly figural and styled quality of his writing, Professor Feldman points out Kant's implicit and explicit reflections on figurality, rhetoric and literary practices. She asserts that Kant's references to literary genres, authors, orators, poets, readers and literary style should be considered not a matter of sheer formalism but instead one of historical practices. By highlighting the importance of rhetoric and language practices in Kant's work, Professor Feldman's project reconsiders what is canonically characterized as rationalism and Enlightenment thought.