Description
Book SynopsisIdentifies and explains a surprising affinity for medievalism and medieval studies among the leading figures of critical theory. This book contains original essays by Bataille and Bourdieu - translated English - that testify in various ways to the strange persistence of medievalisms in French postwar avant-garde writings.
Trade Review"The Premodern Condition is an important and original contribution to emerging debates about the history and significance of critical theory. Holsinger demonstrates that twentieth-century theoretical discourses, as they become separated from nineteenth-century humanistic and social-scientific disciplines, engage in a series of brilliant defamiliarizing moves fundamentally grounded in medievalism." - Amy Hollywood, University of Chicago"