The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet
From the prizewinning author of HhH, the most insolent novel of the year (L'Express) is a romp through the French intelligentsia of the twentieth century.
Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies--struck by a laundry van--after lunch with the presidential candidate Fran ois Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn't an accident at all? What if Barthes was . . . murdered? In The Seventh Function of Language, Laurent Binet spins a madcap secret history of the French intelligentsia, starring such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Julia Kristeva--as well as the hapless police detective Jacques Bayard, whose new case will plunge him into the depths of literary theory (starting with the French version of Roland Barthes for Dummies). Soon Bayard finds himself in search of a lost manuscript by the linguist Roman Jakobson on the mysterious seventh function of language. A brilliantly erudite comedy with more than a dash of The Da Vinci Code--The Seventh Function of Language takes us from the caf s of Saint-Germain to the corridors of Cornell University, and into the duels and orgies of the Logos Club, a secret philosophical society that dates to the Roman Empire. Binet has written both a send-up and a wildly exuberant celebration of the French intellectual tradition.
Laurent Binet was born in Paris, France, on July 19, 1972. He graduated from Sciences Po, the CELSA Paris (DESS), and the University of Kent, where he completed an MA in European studies. He is the author of La Vie professionnelle de Laurent B., a memoir of his experience teaching in secondary schools in Paris. In March 2010, HHhH won the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman. Binet is a professor at the University of Paris III, where he lectures on French literature.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780374261566 |
| ISBN 10 | 0374261563 |
| Title | The Seventh Function of Language |
| Author | Laurent Binet |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Year published | 2017-08-01 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |