Description
Book SynopsisAlessandra Aloisi is Lecturer in French Literature and Thought at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages of the University of Oxford, UK. She is co-editor, with M. Piazza and M. Sinclair, of
Maine de Biran's 'Of Immediate Apperception' (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Trade ReviewIn a world obsessed with attentional issues, often aligned with a nostalgic longing for rancid forms of authority, Alessandra Aloisi’s book awakens us to the emancipatory power of not paying attention where attention is supposedly due. From Pascal to Proust, through Rousseau and Leopardi, she calls forth the irreverent magic of literary studies to reclaim the affirmative freedom of distraction, read as an untamed alternative to obedience and conformity. * Yves Citton, Professor in Literature and Media at the University Paris 8 and Author of The Ecology of Attention, France *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction
Chapter 1: Divertissement 1. Montaigne and Pascal, or the Difference between Ethics and Morality 2. The Sublime Misanthropist 3. A Man Alone in a Room 4. Maine de Biran Criticizing (Voltaire Criticizing) Pascal 5. Assault on the Inner Citadel 6. Chasing a Hare 7. The Theory of Pleasure
Chapter 2: The Power of Flies 1. Augustine and Pascal 2. Serendipity 3. A Distracted Mathematician 4. Distraction and Trains of Thought 5. What is Essential is (In)visible to the Eye 6. Involuntary Memory 7. The Spider and the Connoisseur 8. ‘The Entire History of You’
Chapter 3: Rêverie 1. Dreams, Reveries, and Fantasies 2. Reveries and Childhood 3. Journey, Movement, and Solitude 4. Distraction and Automatism 5. The System of the Soul and the Beast, or the Dangers of Distraction 6. Distraction and Somnambulism 7. Reveries and the History of Madness 8. Distraction and Common Sense 9. Idleness and Laziness Conclusion: Distraction and Laughter
Bibliography Index
