Description
Book SynopsisNadir Lahiji is an adjunct Associate Professor of architecture at the University of Canberra, Australia. He is the editor of
Can Architecture Be An Emancipatory Project? Dialogues on Architecture and the Left (2016). He previously edited
The Missed Encounter of Radical Philosophy with Architecture (Bloomsbury 2014).
Trade ReviewNadir Lahiji’s
Adventures with the Theory of the Baroque and French Philosophy provides, as promised, a genuine intellectual adventure. Using an encyclopedic knowledge of recent French philosophy and his impressive background in architecture, Lahiji constructs a breathtakingly new theory of the baroque that completely alters previous understandings of the concept. This is required reading for anyone interested in the baroque or in contemporary French philosophy. -- Todd McGowan, Associate Professor, The University of Vermont, USA
With
Adventures with the Theory of the Baroque and French Philosophy Nadir Lahiji has produced a first rate and thoroughgoing critical engagement with the enormous and challenging body of theoretical work on the baroque that has emerged primarily from late 20th-century French thought. Building on a careful reconstruction of the core philosophical issues at the heart of the Benjaminian, psychoanalytic, and Deleuzian permutations of the baroque question, Lahiji breaks new ground as he brings the theoretical edifice full circle to its very source in the contemplation of architecture. -- William Egginton, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
Nadir Lahiji’s engagement with the baroque is a most remarkable intellectual achievement. It scrutinizes the baroque in all its multifaceted and contradictory aspects, presenting not merely its historical context and value, but placing it at the heart of contemporary theoretical and political strives. Lahiji examines the very nature of modernity, confronting Lacan’s and Deleuze’s take on it, rereading Benjamin’s classical account and proposing a devastating critique of the ‘neobaroque’ in modern architecture. Great joy to read and a great challenge for thought. -- Mladen Dolar, Professor of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Table of ContentsTable of Contents List of Figures Foreword, David Cunningham Preface Acknowledgment Introduction
: Philosophy, Architecture, and the Baroque Subject to Truth 1. Excursus: Variations on the Theme of Baroque Theory and Philosophy Part I: The Philosophical Theory of Baroque 2. The Baroque and Jouissance: Jacques Lacan 3. The Baroque and the Fold: Gilles Deleuze Interlude 1: Theorization of Baroque as ‘Event’ Part II: Modernity, Madness, and the Baroque Criticism 4. Cogito and the Baroque in the Age of Reason: Reading Foucault 5. Baroque Reason and the Madness of Vision: Reading Buci-Glucksmann 6. Theology and the ‘Baroque Room’: Reading Benjamin 7. Culture Industry and the (Neo-)Baroque: Reading Adorno PART III: Architecture and the Theory of the Baroque 8. The Misadventure of Architecture with French Philosophy 9. Digital Neobaroque and the Hyper-Deleuzeans of Architecture 10. Against the ‘Architectural’ Reading of The Fold 11. The Draped Neobaroque: Is It Possible Not to Love Frank Gehry? Interlude: Post-Rationalism and Theorization of the Baroque as Real Part IV: Post-Rationalism and the Adventure with French Philosophy 12. De-Suturing Architecture: Philosophy and Anti-Philosophy 13. Capitalism, Idolatry, and Critique of Neobaroque Ideology Epilogue: The Missed Encounter of Architecture with Post-Rationalism Works Cited Index
