Books by Giorgio Agamben

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Book SynopsisOne of Europe’s greatest living philosophers, Giorgio Agamben, analyzes the life and work of one of Europe’s greatest poets, Friedrich Hölderlin. What does it mean to inhabit a place or a self? What is a habit? And, for human beings, doesn’t living mean—first and foremost—inhabiting? Pairing a detailed chronology of German poet Friedrich Hölderlin’s years of purported madness with a new examination of texts often considered unreadable, Giorgio Agamben's new book aims to describe and comprehend a life that the poet himself called habitual and inhabited. Hölderlin’s life was split neatly in two: his first 36 years, from 1770 to 1806; and the 36 years from 1807 to 1843, which he spent as a madman holed up in the home of Ernst Zimmer, a carpenter. The poet lived the first half of his existence out and about in the broader world, relatively engaged with current events, only to then spend the second half entirely cut off from the outside world. Despite occasional visitors, it was as if a wall separated him from all external events and relationships. For reasons that may well eventually become clear, Hölderlin chose to expunge all character—historical, social, or otherwise—from the actions and gestures of his daily life. According to his earliest biographer, he often stubbornly repeated, “nothing happens to me.” Such a life can only be the subject of a chronology—not a biography, much less a clinical or psychological analysis. Nevertheless, this book suggests that this is precisely how Hölderlin offers humanity an entirely other notion of what it means to live. Although we have yet to grasp the political significance of his unprecedented way of life, it now clearly speaks directly to our own. Trade Review"A work of retrieval. . . Agamben's main project is to uncover the political implications for the difference between the chronological life and the biographical life. This book is both creative and profound." * Choice *

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Book SynopsisA richly illustrated analysis from one of Europe’s greatest living philosophers. In Pinocchio, Giorgio Agamben turns his keen philosopher’s eye to the famous nineteenth-century novel by Carlo Collodi. To Agamben, Pinocchio’s adventures are a kind of initiation into life itself. Like us, the mischievous puppet is caught between two worlds. He is faced with the alternatives of submitting to authority or of carrying on, stubbornly indulging his way of being. From Agamben’s virtuoso interpretation of this classic story, we learn that we can harbor the mystery of existence only if we are not aware of it, only if we manage to cohabit with an area of non-knowledge, immemorial and very near. Richly illustrated with images from three early editions of Collodi’s novel, this new volume will delight enthusiasts of both literature and philosophy. Table of Contents1.Prologue2.Adventure3.Epilogue4.Bibliography5.Note on Illustrations

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Book SynopsisAn engaging collection of late-life reflections and quick thoughts, a book unlike any other Agamben book. What can the senses of an attentive philosopher see, hear, and learn that can, in turn, teach us about living better lives? Perhaps it’s less a matter of asking what and more a matter of asking how. These latest reflections from Italy’s foremost philosopher form a sort of travelogue that chronicles Giorgio Agamben’s profound interior journey. Here, with unprecedented immediacy, Agamben shares his final remarks, late-life observations, and reflections about his life that flashed before his eyes. What did he see in that brief flash? What did he stay faithful to? What remains of all those places, friends, and teachers?

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Book SynopsisIn a tour-de-force reinterpretation of the Christian tradition, Agamben shows that the Garden of Eden has always served as a symbol for humanity's true nature. What happened to paradise after Adam and Eve were expelled? The question may sound like a theological quibble, or even a joke, but in The Kingdom and the Garden, Giorgio Agamben uses it as a starting point for an investigation of human nature and the prospects for political transformation. In a tour-de-force reinterpretation of the Christian tradition, Agamben shows that the Garden of Eden has always served as a symbol of humanity's true nature. Where earlier theologians viewed the expulsion as temporary, Augustine's doctrine of original sin makes it permanent, reimagining humanity as the paradoxical creature that has been completely alienated from its own nature. From this perspective, there can be no return to paradise, only the hope for the messianic kingdom. Yet there have always been thinkers who rebelled against this id

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Book SynopsisA brief study of select Western art from Italy's foremost philosopher. In Renaissance palaces, the studiolo was a small room to which the prince withdrew to meditate or read, surrounded by paintings he particularly loved. This book is a kind of studiolo for its author, Giorgio Agamben, as he turns his philosophical lens on the world of Western art. Studiolo is a fascinating take on a selection of artworks created over millennia; some are easily identifiable, others rarer. Though they were produced over an arc of time stretching from 5000 BCE to the present, only now have they achieved their true legibility. Agamben contends that we must understand that the images bequeathed by the past are really addressed to us, here and now; otherwise, our historical awareness is broken. Notwithstanding the attention to detail and the critical precautions that characterize the author's methodthey provoke us with a force, even a violence, that we cannot escape. When we understand why Dostoevsky

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Book SynopsisAgamben is the rare writer whose ideas and works have a broad appeal across many fields, and Nymphs will engage not only the author's devoted fans in philosophy, legal theory, sociology, and literary criticism but also his growing audience among art theorists and historians as well. In 1900, art historians André Jolles and Aby Warburg constructed an experimental dialogue in which Jolles supposed he had fallen in love with the figure of a young woman in a painting: A fantastic figureshall I call her a servant girl, or rather a classical nymph?what is the meaning of it all?Who is the nymph? Where does she come from?Warburg's response: in essence she is an elemental spirit, a pagan goddess in exile, serves as the touchstone for this wide-ranging and theoretical exploration of female representation in iconography. In Nymphs, the newest translation of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben's work, the author notes that academic research has lingered on the pagan goddess, while the concept

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Book SynopsisItalian philosopherGiorgioAgamben takes a close look at why the sense of taste has not historically been appreciated as a means to know and experience pleasure or why it has always been considered inferior to actual theoretical knowledge. Taste, Agamben argues, is a category that has much to reveal to the contemporary world. Taking a step into thehistoryof philosophy and reaching tothe very origins of aesthetics, Agamben critically recovers the roots of one of Western culture's cardinal concepts.Agambenis the rare writer whose ideas and works have a broad appeal across many fields, and withTastehe turns his critical eye to the realm of Western art and aesthetic practice.This volume will not only engage the author's devoted fans in philosophy, sociology, and literary criticism but also his growing audience among art theorists and historians.

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Book SynopsisA patient, genealogical investigation of the dichotomies that are foundational to the Western philosophical tradition. We are so used to distinguishing between the possible and the real, between essence and existence that we do not realize that these distinctions, which seem so obvious to us, are the result of a long and laborious process that has led to the splitting of beingthe matter of thoughtinto two fragments that are both conflicting and intimately intertwined. This book argues that the ontological-political machine of the West is based on the splitting of this matter, without which neither science nor politics would be possible. Without the partition of reality into essence and existence and into possibility and actuality, neither scientific knowledge nor the ability to control human actionwhich characterizes the historical power of the Westwould have been possible. If we could not suspend the exclusive concentration of our attention on what immediately exists (as animals seem to do), to think and define its essence, Western science and technology would not have experienced the advances that characterize them. And if the dimension of possibility disappeared entirely, neither plans nor projects would be thinkable, and human actions could be neither directed nor controlled. The incomparable power of the West has one of its essential presuppositions in this ontological machine.

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Book SynopsisDas Wesen der abendländischen Politik besteht in der Trennung zwischen dem nackten Leben, das heißt dem natürlichen Dasein des Menschen, und seiner rechtlich-politischen Existenz. Denn um sich zu konstituieren, muss das rechtlich-politische Leben das nackte Leben produzieren und als Ausnahme von sich selbst ausschließen. Diese zentrale These seiner politischen Philosophie erläutert Giorgio Agamben in seiner Dankesrede bei der Verleihung des Leopold Lucas Preises 2013 durch eine eindringliche Auslegung des emblematischen Titelbildes, das sich auf der ersten Ausgabe von Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, dem vielleicht wichtigsten philosophischen Werk über die Ursprünge und Grundlagen des Staates, findet. Dabei wird zugleich deutlich, dass Hobbes eine eschatologische Überwindung der Widersprüche erwartet, die mit der Konstituierung von politischer Herrschaft untrennbar einhergehen.

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Book Synopsis1939, Europa es azotada por siniestros vientos de guerra. Mientras las divisiones acorazadas alemanas recorren las llanuras polacas y se preparan para la invasión de Francia, Carlo Levi, desde la playa de La Baule, donde decide refugiarse huyendo del régimen de Mussolini, trata de fijar su mirada de intelectual antifascista sobre una crisis ya próxima al apocalipsis. Lo que ve es la aterradora, fulgurante imagen de una civilización abogada a la autodestrucción, engullida por las tinieblas de sus propias contradicciones irreconciliables y nefastas.Con un estilo lírico, en ocasiones oracular, y una extraordinaria lucidez crítica, Levi analiza la religión (que transforma lo sagrado en sacrificio), el Estado (ídolo social por excelencia, del que la política occidental no logra liberarse), la guerra, la sangre, la masa, el amor y el arte como universales humanos de los que manaron esas contradicciones de la Europa prebélica, que todavía siguen en gran parte irresueltas.Miedo a la li

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Book SynopsisFilósofo, sacerdote católico y pensador radical de la cultura, a Iván Illich se lo conoce sobre todo por escritos polémicos como La sociedad desescolarizada, La convivencialidad o Némesis médica, en los que elabora una crítica de las instituciones contemporáneas en los ámbitos de la educación escolar, la medicina profesional, las relaciones laborales o el desarrollo socioeconómico. Este libro reúne textos pertenecientes a la primera etapa de su trayectoria biográfica e intelectual, rescatándolos de un olvido inmerecido.Los ensayos que componen La Iglesia sin poder son testimonio de la labor pastoral de Illich, que afronta problemas eminentemente prácticos a la luz de unos pocos conceptos genuinamente teológicos: la oración, la pobreza de espíritu y el Reino. Como señala Giorgio Agamben en su prólogo, estamos ante un pensamiento del Reino, de la especial presencia de este entre nosotros, ya cumplida y, sin embargo, todavía no.En el núcleo de la obra de Illich está la oposición a

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Book SynopsisQué está en juego en la literatura? Cuál es el fuego que el relato ha perdido y que busca recobrar a toda costa? Y qué es la piedra filosofal que los escritores, con el empecinamiento de los alquimistas, se esfuerzan en producir en el horno de las palabras? Qué resiste, en todo acto de creación, a la creación misma, y de esa forma confiere a la obra su fuerza y su gracia? Agamben recoge en diez ensayos los motivos más urgentes y actuales de su investigación. Y, como siempre en sus escritos, la obcecada interrogación sobre el misterio de la literatura, misterio inquirido hasta en sus aspectos más materiales (la transformación de la lectura en el pasaje del libro a la pantalla), se entrelaza con una meditación sobre el otro misterio de la modernidad, ético y político, esta vez.

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Book SynopsisLos Cantos de Ezra Pound es el poema épico más importante del siglo XX y por primera vez aparecen traducidos de forma íntegra en nuestra lengua.Los Cantos de Ezra Pound es el poema épico más importante del siglo xx y, sin duda, una de las cúspides de la lengua inglesa. Un poema a la manera de Homero, es decir, una suma de literaturas y de tradiciones, un compendio de historias, de leyendas, de mitos, de canciones y de lenguas. Si tuviésemos que imaginar un poema total en el que todos los rasgos del ser humano estuviesen presentes, desde su más profunda miseria hasta su más alta belleza, sin duda sería éste. Si todo el conocimiento humano se perdiera, lo volveríamos a encontrar en los Cantos. Pound tardó más de cincuenta años en escribirlos. Quiso que fueran la Divina Comedia de nuestro tiempo. En su vastedad, en su sabiduría y en su belleza, lo logró.

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