In Body and Story, Richard Terdiman explores the tension between
what might seem to be two fundamentally different ways of
understanding the world: as physical reality and as representation
in language. In demonstrating the complicated relationship between
these two modes of being, he also presents a new bold approach to
the problem of conflicts between irreconcilable but equally
compelling theoretical ideas.
Enlightenment rationalism is most often understood as
maintaining that words can meaningfully refer to and grasp things
in the material world, while Postmodernism famously argues that
nothing exists outside of language. Terdiman challenges this clean
distinction, finding the early seeds of Postmodern doubt in the
Enlightenment, and demonstrating the stubborn resistance of
material reality -- particularly that of the body -- to language
even today. Building on readings of works by 18th-century
encyclopedist Denis Diderot and contemporary philosopher-icon
Jacques Derrida, Terdiman argues that despite their genuine and
profound opposition, a constant negotiation or mutual interrogation
has always been taking place between these two world-views, even as
the balance at times shifts to one side or the other. In analyzing
these shifts he proposes a new model for understanding how
seemingly unabridgeable theories legitimately coexist in our
intellectual conception of the world, and he suggests a new ethics
for managing this coexistence.
General
| Imprint: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
2007 |
| First published: |
2005 |
| Authors: |
Richard Terdiman
(Professor of Literature and the History of Consciousness)
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
| Pages: |
288 |
| Edition: |
Revised |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-8018-8543-3 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Language & Literature >
Literature: history & criticism >
General
|
| LSN: |
0-8018-8543-4 |
| Barcode: |
9780801885433 |
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