Description
Book SynopsisHeterogeneity of Being goes beyond the standard interpretations of Octavio Paz as a thinker of national identity and proposes a radical rethinking of the relationship between literature and philosophy. Dorfsman analyzes how Pazâs âœtradition of ruptureâ properly displays a continuity between self and other, identity and difference, time and space.
Trade ReviewMarco Dorfsman, offers unprecedented readings of Labyrinth of Solitude, The Bow and the Lyre, Sunstone, and other works and presents one of the first sustained theoretical analyses of the Mexican difference. He extends Paz’s dialogue with crucial philosophical and political trends of his period, reading him alongside figures such as Heidegger, Lyotard, and Derrida, and contributes to an elaboration of a poetics of temporality and inheritance. -- Brett Levinson, professor of comparative literature at Binghamton University
By rigorously examining the subtle interplay between culture, literature, and philosophy, Dorfsman puts forth an innovative and provocative interpretation of Octavio Paz’s contributions to understanding the Mexican twentieth century. . . . Dorfsman also discloses in Paz the glimmer of a new mode of thinking that can only be called post-literary. -- Patrick Dove, professor of Spanish at Indiana University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1: Turns and Returns, Vueltas y Vueltas Chapter 2: The Inheritance of the Labyrinth Chapter 3: From the Subject to the Negative and Back: Paz’s Mexicans Chapter 4: The Ancient Quarrel between History and Poetry 1.The Lyric, Identity, and Modernity 2.History, Difference, and Temporality Chapter 5: Heads or Tails 1.Heads: Identity or Difference 2.Tails: Poetry, Hybridity, Thought Chapter 6: Sun Stone: Circling Back to the Threshold 1. First Turn 2. Return on the Way to a Conclusion: The Threshold of Saying Chapter 7: On the Field of Representation Index
