Understanding Ranciere, Understanding Modernism by Patrick M Bray

Understanding Ranciere, Understanding Modernism by Patrick M Bray

The contemporary philosopher Jacques Rancière has become over the last two decades one of the most influential voices in philosophy, political theory, and literary, art historical, and film criticism. His work reexamines the divisions that have defined our understanding of modernity, such as art and politics, representation and abstraction, and literature and philosophy. Working across these divisions, he engages the historical roots of modernism at the end of the eighteenth century, uncovering forgotten texts in the archive that trouble our notions of intellectual history. The contributors to Understanding Rancière, Understanding Modernism engage with the multiplicity of Rancière’s thought through close readings of his texts, through comparative readings with other philosophers, and through an engagement with modernist works of art and literature. The final section of the volume includes an extended glossary of the most important terms used by Rancière, which will be a valuable resource for experts and students alike.

Patrick Bray’s collection Understanding Rancière, Understanding Modernism brings together some of the foremost scholars engaging with the work of Jacques Rancière todayWhat is perhaps most notable about it, however, is that reading it is akin to finding oneself in the ‘unpredictable’ library that Rancière laments the loss of in the volume’s concluding interview. If the old Bibliothèque Nationale’s ‘heterogeneous books…grouped together side by side,’ enabled Rancière to write as he does, crossing disciplinary borders and thinking around singular problems in the mode of discovery rather than mastery, the volume’s approach to Rancière operates on a similar principal (p. 277). Allowing the reader unfamiliar with Rancière’s work to find footholds in the definitions of key concepts found in the volume’s third section, the collection also offers unexpected new directions. * H-France *
Bray’s collection — and Bloomsbury’s series, generally — provides a wealth of intriguing new theoretical possibilities. * French Studies *
In addition to highlighting the range and influence of Rancière’s work, these essays confirm the rigour, richness, and robust critical independence of the responses this work is now inspiring. As a result, this collection not only offers a compelling account of current work around Rancière: it relaunches this work anew. * Martin Crowley, Reader in Modern French Thought and Culture, University of Cambridge, UK *
Deviating wisely down the byways of Rancière’s writing by attending closely to the textual and conceptual singularity of a significant constellation of hitherto less extensively debated works, this collection does indeed provide invaluable new understanding of his unfailingly productive struggle with modernism. The volume is suffused with that acutely responsive sensitivity to the shifting displacements of his unclassifiable project which Rancière speaks of in the substantial and wide-ranging closing interview. * Oliver Davis, Reader in French Studies, University of Warwick, UK *
A cornucopia of some of the best critical minds working in French theory today. It contains a challenging yet highly accessible collection of essays that illuminate the importance of one of the most important theorists of today. Patrick M. Bray has done a masterful job in editing a collection that will have a long shelf life. * Lawrence D. Kritzman, John D. Willard Prof of French and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College, USA *

Patrick M. Bray is Associate Professor of French at the Ohio State University, USA. He is the author of The Novel Map: Space and Subjectivity in Nineteenth-Century French Fiction (2013) and co-editor of Building the Louvre: Architectures of Politics and Art (2014).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781501345630
ISBN 10	150134563X
Title	Understanding Ranciere, Understanding Modernism
Author	Patrick M Bray
Series	Understanding Philosophy Understanding Modernism
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2018-09-20
Number of pages	312
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.