Bergson as Writer
Literature in Philosophy
Will be published approx. on 30. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-3995-4045-2 (ISBN)
Description
Henri Bergson was awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. However, literary writers do not consider him - and in fact never cite him - as one of their own. Bruno Clement reads Henri Bergson as a writer whose thought is inseparable from a tireless reflection on the question of his written expression.
Clement adds new insights into Bergson's philosophical achievements through an analysis of the literary techniques he develops to express his theoretical insights. This close analysis of rhetorical technique analyses the effect on Bergson's philosophical texts. Reading all of Bergson's philosophical texts with the tools of literature, to systematically consider the theoretical consequences, he reveals that Bergson was not only a philosopher but a highly skilled and innovative writer.
Clement adds new insights into Bergson's philosophical achievements through an analysis of the literary techniques he develops to express his theoretical insights. This close analysis of rhetorical technique analyses the effect on Bergson's philosophical texts. Reading all of Bergson's philosophical texts with the tools of literature, to systematically consider the theoretical consequences, he reveals that Bergson was not only a philosopher but a highly skilled and innovative writer.
Reviews / Votes
Focusing on Bergson's concept of expression, Clement dispels the idea that he was a litterateur whose belletristics compensated for defects in philosophy. This extraordinarily lucid and innovative book restores the genius of Bergson seen as a poietic inventor not only of his discourse but also of his language. -- Jean-Michel Rabate, University of Pennsylvania, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-4045-2 (9781399540452)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Bruno Clement is Emeritus Professor of Literature, Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis and is former President of the International College of Philosophy (2004-2007). He is a well-known literary critic and theorist who studies the links between literature and philosophy. He has contributed to Journal of Beckett Studies and The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf. He is the author of many books in French including L'OEuvre sans qualites, rhetorique de Samuel Beckett, preface de Michel Deguy ("Logique de la figure"), 442 p., Paris, Seuil, 1994 (traduction en espagnol en cours); Le Lecteur et son modele, coll. "Ecriture", 272 p., P.U.F., 1999; La Tragedie classique, Seuil, "Memo" 100 p., 1999 [ce livre a ete traduit en roumain (2000) et en coreen (2002)]; L'Invention du commentaire, Augustin, Jacques Derrida, 175 p., P.U.F., 2000; Le Recit de la methode, Seuil (collection Poetique >>), 2005; La Voix verticale - essai sur la prosopopee, Belin (<< L'extreme contemporain >>); Henri Bergson, Prix nobel de litterature, Lagrasse, Verdier, 2021. Anthony Uhlmann is Distinguished Professor in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, Australia. He is the author of Beckett and Poststructuralism (Cambridge University Press, 1999), Samuel Beckett and the Philosophical Image (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Thinking in Literature: Joyce, Woolf, Nabokov (Bloomsbury, 2011), J. M. Coetzee, Truth, Meaning, Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2020). He was the Managing Editor of the Journal of Beckett Studies (Edinburgh University Press). He has translated a number of essays from French into English, including, The Exhausted by Gilles Deleuze.
Content
Translator's Introduction
List of Abbreviations
1. 'In other words...'
An Author's Preface
How to Write
The Distinction of a Poet
Penetrating the Veil of Words
Thought and Language
Commentary on Bergson
Philosophy and Literature
The Form of Discourse
In Praise of Approximation
Of the Proper, Of the Image; Of the Figurative, Of the Concept
Forget Words
Three Figures
Zigzag
Giving Voice
To Fabulate
Thinking Through the Imagination
The Words of Philosophy, the Words of Life
Language and Reason
On Metaphor
Language and Continuity
Infinite Correction
Intuition, Image, Concept
Bergson's Languages
Language and Music
Care of the Symbol
Bilingual Bergson
Reading Bergson
2. '... in the same direction as art'
Art and Thought
The Measurable and the Unpredictable
Art and Science
Art is an Anti-Concept
A Question of Vision
Art and Philosophy
The Singular, the Universal
The Life and The Work
The Philosopher and his Model
To Philosophize as an Artist
Art, Empathy; Metaphysics, Sympathy
Photography and Translation
On Literary Composition
'We artists...'
The Essence of Art
Bergson Translator
Bergson Musician
3. 'An Effective Fiction'
On the Imagination in Philosophy
The Imagination from a Semantic Point of View...
The Temptation of Fancy
The Imagination, from an Anthropological Point of View
Fancy and Will
Generalized Invention
Circumstance is a Lure
Fiction is a Counter-Power
Evolution is a Fable
Bergson's Ghost Philosophy
London, just after Bologna
The 'Ghosts which Surround Us' and the 'Phantasms of the Living'
'The Little Girl and the Learned Doctor', Fable
The Creatures of Dream
'... a dream I indulge in at times...'
'... perhaps even death'
Literature and Philosophy mixed
The Mediating Figure [image] in the Carpet
Henri, Henry and William
Philosophy and Philosophy
Philosophy and Literature
Literature and Literature
Critique of the Imagination, Critique of Bergson
4. '... to transfer thought, still living, into the soul of another'
Coincidences
Teaching
In Praise of the Hand
Jeanne
Teaching literature
To Hell with Meaning, to Hell with Doctrine
'The Spirt of Form'
To Teach Philosophy is to Philosophize
To Philosophize is to Teach the History of Philosophy
Time and Narrative
Bergson, Among Many Others
For a Written Philosophy, Despite Everything (Plato)
The Textual Aporias of Pure Reason (Kant)
'Words, words, words...'
Thought is Circumstantial...
... figural...
... and textual
Works Cited
List of Abbreviations
1. 'In other words...'
An Author's Preface
How to Write
The Distinction of a Poet
Penetrating the Veil of Words
Thought and Language
Commentary on Bergson
Philosophy and Literature
The Form of Discourse
In Praise of Approximation
Of the Proper, Of the Image; Of the Figurative, Of the Concept
Forget Words
Three Figures
Zigzag
Giving Voice
To Fabulate
Thinking Through the Imagination
The Words of Philosophy, the Words of Life
Language and Reason
On Metaphor
Language and Continuity
Infinite Correction
Intuition, Image, Concept
Bergson's Languages
Language and Music
Care of the Symbol
Bilingual Bergson
Reading Bergson
2. '... in the same direction as art'
Art and Thought
The Measurable and the Unpredictable
Art and Science
Art is an Anti-Concept
A Question of Vision
Art and Philosophy
The Singular, the Universal
The Life and The Work
The Philosopher and his Model
To Philosophize as an Artist
Art, Empathy; Metaphysics, Sympathy
Photography and Translation
On Literary Composition
'We artists...'
The Essence of Art
Bergson Translator
Bergson Musician
3. 'An Effective Fiction'
On the Imagination in Philosophy
The Imagination from a Semantic Point of View...
The Temptation of Fancy
The Imagination, from an Anthropological Point of View
Fancy and Will
Generalized Invention
Circumstance is a Lure
Fiction is a Counter-Power
Evolution is a Fable
Bergson's Ghost Philosophy
London, just after Bologna
The 'Ghosts which Surround Us' and the 'Phantasms of the Living'
'The Little Girl and the Learned Doctor', Fable
The Creatures of Dream
'... a dream I indulge in at times...'
'... perhaps even death'
Literature and Philosophy mixed
The Mediating Figure [image] in the Carpet
Henri, Henry and William
Philosophy and Philosophy
Philosophy and Literature
Literature and Literature
Critique of the Imagination, Critique of Bergson
4. '... to transfer thought, still living, into the soul of another'
Coincidences
Teaching
In Praise of the Hand
Jeanne
Teaching literature
To Hell with Meaning, to Hell with Doctrine
'The Spirt of Form'
To Teach Philosophy is to Philosophize
To Philosophize is to Teach the History of Philosophy
Time and Narrative
Bergson, Among Many Others
For a Written Philosophy, Despite Everything (Plato)
The Textual Aporias of Pure Reason (Kant)
'Words, words, words...'
Thought is Circumstantial...
... figural...
... and textual
Works Cited