Description
Book SynopsisNobody knows how to write'. Thus opens this carefully nuanced and accessible collection of essays by one of the most important writer-philosophers of the 20th century, Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). First published in French in 1991 as
Lectures d''enfance, these essays have never been printed as a collection in English. In them, Lyotard investigates his idea of infantia, or the infancy of thought that resists all forms of development, either human or technological.Each essay responds to works by writers and thinkers who are central to cultural modernism, such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud. This volume with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford contextualises Lyotard's thought and demonstrates his continued relevance today.
Trade ReviewReadings in Infancy marks a genuine turn in Lyotard’s work. After the reflection on the sublime comes the elaboration of the subliminal. Infancy is this non-conscious, prelinguistic state in which the subject is born and yet does not exist. If the sublime is the experience of the too late, the subliminal is that of the too early. In-between them, Lyotard powerfully unravels the traumatic adventure of the unpresentable. * Catherine Malabou, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University, UK, and University of California at Irvine, USA *
Reading is always already entailed in the act of writing. While few musicians have perfect pitch, some writers draw near to perfect pitch in reading. Here is Lyotard lingering in books, reading prudently, slowly and extracting the fomenting unrest of those who set the tone for modernity and its discontents. * Vlad Ionescu, Associate Professor of Art Theory, Faculty of Architecture and Art/PXL MAD, Hasselt University, Belgium *
In these readings Lyotard illustrates how his innovative theory of infancy can illuminate Kafka, Joyce, Freud, Arendt, Sartre and Valéry. They showcase Lyotard’s importance as a reader of art and literature. The six interventions are not only enlightening, but are crafted in Lyotard’s exquisite idiom. * François Noudelmann, Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture, New York University, USA *
Table of ContentsForeword,
Robert Harvey (Stony Brook University, USA) Infans,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Mary Lydon Return: Joyce,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. Roberts. Prescription: Kafka,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans Christopher Fynsk Survivor: Arendt,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey & Mark S. Roberts Words: Sartre,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman Disorder: Valéry,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Robert Harvey Voices: Freud,
J-Fr. Lyotard, trans. Georges Van Den Abbeele Afterword,
Kiff Bamford (Leeds Beckett University, UK) Notes Bibliography of Works by J-Fr. Lyotard in English Translation Index
