Books in the Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism series

A wide-ranging reassessment of Henry Bergson's immense influence on literary Modernism.

This volume makes a significant contribution to both the study of Derrida and of modernist studies. The contributors argue, first, that deconstruction is not "modernΓÇá?; neither is it "postmodernΓÇá? nor simply "modernist.ΓÇá? They also posit that deconstruction is intimately connected with literature, not because deconstruction would be a literary way of doing philosophy, but because literature stands out as a "modernΓÇá? notion. The contributors investigate the nature and depth of Derrida''s affinities with writers such as Joyce, Kafka, Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille, Paul Celan, Maurice Blanchot, Theodor Adorno, Samuel Beckett, and Walter Benjamin, among others.With its strong connection between philosophy and literary modernism, this highly original volume advances modernist literary study and the relationship of literature and philosophy.

Michel Foucault continues to be regarded as one of the most essential thinkers of the twentieth century. A brilliantly evocative writer and conceptual creator, his influence is clearly discernible today across nearly every discipline-philosophy and history, certainly, as well as literary and critical theory, religious and social studies, and the arts. This volume exploits Foucault''s insistent blurring of the self-imposed limits formed by the disciplines, with each author in this volume discovering in Foucault''s work a model useful for challenging not only these divisions but developing a more fundamental interrogation of modernism. Foucault himself saw the calling into question of modernism to be the permanent task of his life''s work, thereby opening a path for rethinking the social. Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism shows, on the one hand, that literature and the arts play a fundamental structural role in Foucault''s works, while, on the other hand, it shifts to the foreground what it presumes to be motivating Foucault: the interrogation of the problem of modernism. To that end, even his most explicitly historical or strictly epistemological and methodological enquiries directly engage the problem of modernism through the works of writers and artists from de Sade, Mallarmé, Baudelaire to Artaud, Manet, Borges, Roussel, and Bataille. This volume, therefore, adopts a transdisciplinary approach, as a way to establish connections between Foucault''s thought and the aesthetic problems that emerge out of those specific literary and artistic works, methods, and styles designated "modern.†? The aim of this volume is to provide a resource for students and scholars not only in the fields of literature and philosophy, but as well those interested in the intersections of art and intellectual history, religious studies, and critical theory.

In the last half-century Ludwig Wittgenstein''s relevance beyond analytic philosophy, to continental philosophy, to cultural studies, and to the arts has been widely acknowledged. Wittgenstein''s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was published in 1922 - the annus mirabilis of modernism - alongside Joyce''s Ulysses, Eliot''s The Waste Land, Mansfield''s The Garden Party and Woolf''s Jacob''s Room. Bertolt Brecht''s first play to be produced, Drums in the Night, was first staged in 1922, as was Jean Cocteau''s Antigone, with settings by Pablo Picasso and music by Arthur Honegger. In different ways, all these modernist landmarks dealt with the crisis of representation and the demise of eternal metaphysical and ethical truths. Wittgenstein''s Tractatus can be read as defining, expressing and reacting to this crisis. In his later philosophy, Wittgenstein adopted a novel philosophical attitude, sensitive to the ordinary uses of language as well as to the unnoticed dogmas they may betray. If the gist of modernism is self-reflection and attention to the way form expresses content, then Wittgenstein''s later ideas - in their fragmented form as well as their "ear-openingΓÇá? contents - deliver it most precisely. Understanding Wittgenstein, Understanding Modernism shows Wittgenstein''s work, both early and late, to be closely linked to the modernist Geist that prevailed during his lifetime. Yet it would be wrong to argue that Wittgenstein was a modernist tout court. For Wittgenstein, as well as for modernist art, understanding is not gained by such straightforward statements. It needs time, hesitation, a variety of articulations, the refusal of tempting solutions, and perhaps even a sense of defeat. It is such a vision of the linkage between Wittgenstein and modernism that guides the present volume.

In the last half-century Ludwig Wittgenstein''s relevance beyond analytic philosophy, to continental philosophy, to cultural studies, and to the arts has been widely acknowledged. Wittgenstein''s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was published in 1922 - the annus mirabilis of modernism - alongside Joyce''s Ulysses, Eliot''s The Waste Land, Mansfield''s The Garden Party and Woolf''s Jacob''s Room. Bertolt Brecht''s first play to be produced, Drums in the Night, was first staged in 1922, as was Jean Cocteau''s Antigone, with settings by Pablo Picasso and music by Arthur Honegger. In different ways, all these modernist landmarks dealt with the crisis of representation and the demise of eternal metaphysical and ethical truths. Wittgenstein''s Tractatus can be read as defining, expressing and reacting to this crisis. In his later philosophy, Wittgenstein adopted a novel philosophical attitude, sensitive to the ordinary uses of language as well as to the unnoticed dogmas they may betray. If the gist of modernism is self-reflection and attention to the way form expresses content, then Wittgenstein''s later ideas - in their fragmented form as well as their "ear-opening" contents - deliver it most precisely. Understanding Wittgenstein, Understanding Modernism shows Wittgenstein''s work, both early and late, to be closely linked to the modernist Geist that prevailed during his lifetime. Yet it would be wrong to argue that Wittgenstein was a modernist tout court. For Wittgenstein, as well as for modernist art, understanding is not gained by such straightforward statements. It needs time, hesitation, a variety of articulations, the refusal of tempting solutions, and perhaps even a sense of defeat. It is such a vision of the linkage between Wittgenstein and modernism that guides the present volume.

Michel Foucault remains to this day a thinker who stands unchallenged as one of the most important of the 20th century. Among the characteristics that have made him influential is his insistent blurring of the border separating philosophy and literature and art, carried out on the basis of his confronting the problem of modernism, which he characterizes as a permanent task. To that end, even his most explicitly historical or strictly epistemological and methodological enquiries, which on their surface would seem not to have anything to do with literature, are full of allusions to modernist writers and artists like Mallarme, Baudelaire, Artaud, Klee, Borges, Broch-sometimes fleetingly, sometimes more extensively, as is the case with Foucault''s life-long devotion to Bataille, Klossowski, Blanchot, and de Sade. Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism shows, on the one hand, that literature and the arts play a fundamental structural role in Foucault''s works, while, on the other hand, it shifts to the foreground what it presumes to be motivating Foucault: the interrogation of the problem of modernism. It presents as many paths as possible, via a trandisciplinary approach, for establishing links between Foucault''s thought to aesthetic problems related to those specific works, methods, and styles designated "modernist." This volume is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the field of literature and philosophy, and will also be of interest to those in film/media studies, art history, French intellectual history, and critical theory.

A wide-ranging reassessment of Henry Bergson's immense influence on literary Modernism.

Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism brings into dialogue Maurice Merleau-Ponty''s phenomenology with modernist art, literature, music, film and neurophysiological discoveries, opening up the complexities of the philosopher''s phenomenology of perception to a broader audience across the arts.An important resource for anyone interested in the links between modernism and philosophy, Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism offers close readings of Merleau-Ponty''s key texts, explores modernist works in light of his thought, and provides an extended glossary of Merleau-Ponty''s central terms and concepts.

Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism brings into dialogue Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology with modernist art, literature, music, film and neurophysiological discoveries, opening up the complexities of the philosopher's phenomenology of perception to a broader audience across the arts.An important resource for anyone interested in the links between modernism and philosophy, Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism offers close readings of Merleau-Ponty's key texts, explores modernist works in light of his thought, and provides an extended glossary of Merleau-Ponty's central terms and concepts.