Neutral
«Insightful comments on topics from negative theology to Thomas De Quincy's drug use. Library Journal His thinking in The Neutral, had never been so mournful, so ample, so warm, so unembarrassed, so alive. -- Wayne Koestenbaum Artforum Remarkable for the combination of intensely personal and idiosyncratic preoccupations with immensely wide literary and philosophical reference points.Times Literary Supplement -- Michael Sheringham Times Literary Supplement A powerful lesson about the balanced, engaged life. Rain Taxi, online edition An excellent English translation... This is a beautiful book. -- Sharon M. Meagher Philosophy In Review»
"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the College de France, just two years before his death. Les mer
The Neutral is comprised of the prewritten texts from which Barthes lectured and centers around 23 "figures," also referred to as "traits" or "twinklings," that are possible embodiments of the Neutral (sleep, silence, tact, etc.) or of the anti-Neutral (anger, arrogance, conflict, etc.). His lectures draw on a diverse set of authors and intellectual traditions, including Lao-tzu, Tolstoy, German mysticism, classical philosophy, Rousseau, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and John Cage. Barthes's idiosyncratic approach to his subjects gives the lectures a playful, personal, and even joyous quality that enhances his rich insights. In addition to his reflections on a variety of literary and scholarly works, Barthes's personal convictions and the events of his life shaped the course and content of the lectures. Most prominently, as Barthes admits, the recent death of his mother and the idea of mourning shape several of his lectures.
Detaljer
- Forlag
- Columbia University Press
- Innbinding
- Innbundet
- Språk
- Engelsk
- ISBN
- 9780231134040
- Utgivelsesår
- 2005
- Format
- 25 x 18 cm
Anmeldelser
«Insightful comments on topics from negative theology to Thomas De Quincy's drug use. Library Journal His thinking in The Neutral, had never been so mournful, so ample, so warm, so unembarrassed, so alive. -- Wayne Koestenbaum Artforum Remarkable for the combination of intensely personal and idiosyncratic preoccupations with immensely wide literary and philosophical reference points.Times Literary Supplement -- Michael Sheringham Times Literary Supplement A powerful lesson about the balanced, engaged life. Rain Taxi, online edition An excellent English translation... This is a beautiful book. -- Sharon M. Meagher Philosophy In Review»