Description

Book Synopsis
Rejecting the current conflation of distraction with diversion, this book presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin's early twentieth-century use of distraction to revolutionize the humanities.

Trade Review
"With his thorough treatment of various concepts of distraction through the centuries, North contributes to the understanding of the complex nature of human thoughtValuable for scholars of literature and philosophy." -- R. C. Conard * Choice *
"This thoughtful, original, and timely study asks not only what distraction is, but also what would be involved in theorizing the interpretive framework through which an interrogation of distraction would first became thinkable. It will be significant to scholars in German Studies and European Critical Thought, as well as to those interested in the conditions and possibilities of repressed, abjected modes of thought more generally." -- Gerhard Richter * University of California, Davis *
"North situates distraction as a fundamental question whose long history of being ignored is witness to the challenge it posed in a century, the twentieth, when distraction itself became more than a fact of experience: it became a fact of existence. This superb analysis of distraction and our lack of attention to it breaks significant new ground in our critical history." -- David Ferris * University of Colorado *

The Problem of Distraction

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    A Paperback / softback by Paul North

    £19.79

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      Book details

      Publisher Stanford University Press
      Published 12 February 2012
      ISBN-13 9780804786874
      978-0804786874
      ISBN-10 0804786879
      Also in:
      Phenomenology and Existentialism

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Rejecting the current conflation of distraction with diversion, this book presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin's early twentieth-century use of distraction to revolutionize the humanities.

      Trade Review
      "With his thorough treatment of various concepts of distraction through the centuries, North contributes to the understanding of the complex nature of human thoughtValuable for scholars of literature and philosophy." -- R. C. Conard * Choice *
      "This thoughtful, original, and timely study asks not only what distraction is, but also what would be involved in theorizing the interpretive framework through which an interrogation of distraction would first became thinkable. It will be significant to scholars in German Studies and European Critical Thought, as well as to those interested in the conditions and possibilities of repressed, abjected modes of thought more generally." -- Gerhard Richter * University of California, Davis *
      "North situates distraction as a fundamental question whose long history of being ignored is witness to the challenge it posed in a century, the twentieth, when distraction itself became more than a fact of experience: it became a fact of existence. This superb analysis of distraction and our lack of attention to it breaks significant new ground in our critical history." -- David Ferris * University of Colorado *

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