Understanding Cavell, Understanding Modernism
Published on 18. September 2025
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-1-5013-1363-9 (ISBN)
Description
Stanley Cavell, undoubtedly one of the most singular and influential voices in contemporary philosophy, has written extensively on modernist art - particularly on painting, photography, music, and literature. He has also dedicated an impressive body of work to cinema, whose complex and nuanced status in regard to modernism constitutes one of Cavell's main concerns. However, Cavell's importance for understanding modernism is not exhausted by his interest in, and analyses of, modernist art and literature. Equally significant, and perhaps even more original, is his understanding of ordinary language philosophy as a modernist enterprise in its own terms.
Following the structure for the Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism series, this volume is divided into three distinct parts. The first part, "Conceptualizing Cavell," features introductory essays on Cavell's most important works. The second part, "Cavell and Aesthetics," delves into more specific aspects and problems pertaining to Cavell's aesthetics and its moral and political implications. The third part is an extended glossary of Cavell's key words and concepts.
Following the structure for the Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism series, this volume is divided into three distinct parts. The first part, "Conceptualizing Cavell," features introductory essays on Cavell's most important works. The second part, "Cavell and Aesthetics," delves into more specific aspects and problems pertaining to Cavell's aesthetics and its moral and political implications. The third part is an extended glossary of Cavell's key words and concepts.
Reviews / Votes
It has been widely recognized that Cavell's focus on judgment and grammatical criteria establishes a close connection between our ability to speak and our capacity for aesthetic response. However, the connection between Cavell's account of skepticism and his writings on modernist art and literature has received much less attention. This volume goes a long way towards correcting that imbalance. * R. M. Berry, Professor Emeritus of English, Florida State University, USA * The contributors to this volume offer an impressively deep exploration of one of Cavell's central tasks, which was the renewal of philosophy. In the process, they show how modernism remains an essential, ongoing project, not bound by historical limits. The result is a book that goes beyond conventional understandings of Cavell and of modernism by getting at the heart of both. * Anthony J. Cascardi, Sidney and Margaret Ancker Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Rhetoric, and Spanish, University of California, Berkeley, USA *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5013-1363-9 (9781501313639)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
Paola Marrati
Understanding Cavell, Understanding Modernism
E-Book
08/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€107.99
Available for download
Paola Marrati
Understanding Cavell, Understanding Modernism
E-Book
08/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€107.99
Available for download
Person
Paola Marrati is Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, USA. She is a member of the Scientific Board of the Center for the Study of French Contemporary Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure of Paris, France. Her publications include Gilles Deleuze: Cinema and Philosophy (2008) and Genesis and Trace: Derrida Reading Husserl and Heidegger (2005).
Content
Abbreviations
Contributors
Introduction: Stanley Cavell and the Quest of a Voice of One's Own for Philosophy (Paola Marrati, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Part 1 Conceptualizing Cavell
1. Must We Mean What We Say? and the (Re)Birth of Ordinary Language Philosophy (Sandra Laugier, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
2. Modernism in The World Viewed (Hugo Clemot, Universite de Tours, France and Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
3. Senses of Walden: Thoreau's Exemplary Act (Paul Standish, University College London, UK)
4. The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy (Paola Marrati, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
5. Democracy as a Way of Life and An-archic Perfectionism: Rereading Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome (Naoko Saito, University of Kyoto, Japan)
Part 2 Cavell and Aesthetics
6. In Quest of the Ordinary: Philosophy, Literature and the Romantic Response (Andrew Brandel, Harvard University, USA)
7. Measuring the Value of Human Life According to a Perfectionist Philosopher: A reading of Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life (David LaRocca, Harvard University, USA)
8. Modernism: Notes toward a Philosophical Approach (Piergiorgio Donatelli, Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy)
9. Modernism and Film at Criticism: Rethinking the "Aesthetic Possibilities" of the Medium (Elise Domenach, Ecole Normale Superieure, France)
10. Cavell and the Modernity of Film (Eli Friedlander, Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Part 3 Glossary
11. Claim (Sandra Laugier, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
12. Criteria (Martin Shuster, University of North Carolina, USA)
13. On the Human Form of Life (Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
14. Skepticism (Jeroen Gerrits, SUNY Binghamton, USA)
15. Tragedy (Nicole Jerr, United States Air Force Academy, USA)
Index
Contributors
Introduction: Stanley Cavell and the Quest of a Voice of One's Own for Philosophy (Paola Marrati, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Part 1 Conceptualizing Cavell
1. Must We Mean What We Say? and the (Re)Birth of Ordinary Language Philosophy (Sandra Laugier, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
2. Modernism in The World Viewed (Hugo Clemot, Universite de Tours, France and Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
3. Senses of Walden: Thoreau's Exemplary Act (Paul Standish, University College London, UK)
4. The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy (Paola Marrati, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
5. Democracy as a Way of Life and An-archic Perfectionism: Rereading Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome (Naoko Saito, University of Kyoto, Japan)
Part 2 Cavell and Aesthetics
6. In Quest of the Ordinary: Philosophy, Literature and the Romantic Response (Andrew Brandel, Harvard University, USA)
7. Measuring the Value of Human Life According to a Perfectionist Philosopher: A reading of Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life (David LaRocca, Harvard University, USA)
8. Modernism: Notes toward a Philosophical Approach (Piergiorgio Donatelli, Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy)
9. Modernism and Film at Criticism: Rethinking the "Aesthetic Possibilities" of the Medium (Elise Domenach, Ecole Normale Superieure, France)
10. Cavell and the Modernity of Film (Eli Friedlander, Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Part 3 Glossary
11. Claim (Sandra Laugier, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, France)
12. Criteria (Martin Shuster, University of North Carolina, USA)
13. On the Human Form of Life (Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University, USA)
14. Skepticism (Jeroen Gerrits, SUNY Binghamton, USA)
15. Tragedy (Nicole Jerr, United States Air Force Academy, USA)
Index