The Wager of Lucien Goldmann by Mitchell Cohen
This is a full-length study of a major figure of postwar French intellectual life, who was a champion of socialist humanism. While many Parisian leftists staunchly upheld Marxism in the 1950s and 1960s, Lucien Goldmann insisted that Marxism was by then in severe crisis and had to reinvent itself radically in order to survive. He rejected the traditional Marxist view of the proletariat and contested the structuralist and antihumanist theorizing that infected French left-wing circles in the 1960s. Highly regarded by thinkers as diverse as Jean Piaget and Alasdair MacIntyre, Goldmann is shown here as a socialist who, unlike many others of his time, refused to portray his aspirations for humanity's future as an inexorable unfolding of history's laws. This work summarizes Goldmann's achievements - his "genetic structuralist" method, his sociology of literature, and his libertarian socialist politics.
"Without question one of the most stimulating works in intellectual history and theory to appear in the last two decades... In examining the origins of Goldmann's ideas, the theorist's preoccupations ... and the enduring significance of his work, Cohen demonstrates a rare, broad-ranging mastery of theory and an ability, like that of Goldmann himself, to uncover the essential historical and social message located within the works of an individual author." * Choice *
Mitchell Cohen, co-editor of Dissent magazine, is Professor of Political Science at Baruch College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He is the author of Zion and State (Blackwell/Columbia) and editor of Rebels and Reactionaries (Dell). During 1993-94, he was National Endowment for the Humantities Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780691034201 |
| ISBN 10 | 0691034206 |
| Title | The Wager of Lucien Goldmann |
| Author | Mitchell Cohen |
| Series | Princeton Legacy Library |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
| Year published | 1994-07-25 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |