Radical Passivity
Levinas, Blanchot, and Agamben
Published on 28. January 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-7914-4048-3 (ISBN)
Description
Examines the notion of passivity in the work of Levinas, Blanchot, and Agamben.
Radical Passivity examines the notion of passivity in the work of Levinas, Blanchot, and Agamben, three thinkers of exceptional intellectual privacy whose writings have decidedly altered the literary and philosophical cultures of our era. Placing their use of passivity in the context of Heidegger and Kant, Wall argues that any philosophical understanding of Levinas's ethics, Blanchot's aesthetics, or Agamben's community must begin with an understanding of a "logic" of passivity that in fact originates (in the modern era at least) in Kant's analysis of the transcendental schema.
Radical Passivity examines the notion of passivity in the work of Levinas, Blanchot, and Agamben, three thinkers of exceptional intellectual privacy whose writings have decidedly altered the literary and philosophical cultures of our era. Placing their use of passivity in the context of Heidegger and Kant, Wall argues that any philosophical understanding of Levinas's ethics, Blanchot's aesthetics, or Agamben's community must begin with an understanding of a "logic" of passivity that in fact originates (in the modern era at least) in Kant's analysis of the transcendental schema.
Reviews / Votes
"These are extremely complex problematics and philosophers with often obscure vocabularies, yet the author manages to present wonderfully clear arguments in lucid prose, free of the jargon that plagues many other writers. Wall demonstrates the common threads that both link them together and situate them clearly with other thinkers such as Derrida and Nancy. I found myself reading the book not so much as a secondary text (about this or that philosopher), but as an original philosophical investigation in its own right. The relations posed among the three thinkers and their links to Heidegger and Kant are completely unique." - Michael Hardt, Duke University"Radical Passivity is awe-inspiring and exhilarating to read. Wall has profound and profoundly original things to say about the figures he treats. He has significantly changed the way I think about Levinas and Blanchot, and introduced me to critically important aspects of Agamben's work. This is a major book, and it will have a major influence on the intellectual discourse in philosophy and literary theory in this country." - William Flesch, Brandeis University
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
303 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-4048-3 (9780791440483)
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
E-Book
01/1999
State University of New York Press
€36.49
Available for download
Persons
Content
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Passivity
The Language of Poetry
One The Allegory of Being
Image
Duality
The Obscure Temporality of the Artwork
The Space of Art
The Profane
Two Levinas's Ethics
An Ambiguous Rapport
No One Other
The Self
Impasse
Ethique
Death
Levinas and Heidegger
Three Blanchot, L'arret de mort, and the Image of Literature
Writing
Proximity
En deca du temps
Image, Ipseity, and Art
Four Agamben and the Political Neuter
Anonymity and Belonging
Whatever!
Community
Object = x
Politics
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Passivity
The Language of Poetry
One The Allegory of Being
Image
Duality
The Obscure Temporality of the Artwork
The Space of Art
The Profane
Two Levinas's Ethics
An Ambiguous Rapport
No One Other
The Self
Impasse
Ethique
Death
Levinas and Heidegger
Three Blanchot, L'arret de mort, and the Image of Literature
Writing
Proximity
En deca du temps
Image, Ipseity, and Art
Four Agamben and the Political Neuter
Anonymity and Belonging
Whatever!
Community
Object = x
Politics
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index