The Fabulous Imagination

On Montaigne's Essays

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, French, European
Cover of the book The Fabulous Imagination by Lawrence Kritzman, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Lawrence Kritzman ISBN: 9780231512510
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: June 29, 2009
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Lawrence Kritzman
ISBN: 9780231512510
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: June 29, 2009
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

"This is one of the few books on Montaigne that fuses analytical skill with humane awareness of why Montaigne matters."-Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities, Yale University

"In this exhilarating and learned book on Montaigne's essays, Lawrence D. Kritzman contemporizes the great writer. Reading him from today's deconstructive America, Kritzman discovers Montaigne always already deep into a dialogue with Jacques Derrida and psychoanalysis. One cannot but admire this fabulous act of translation."-Hélène Cixous

"Throughout his career, Lawrence D. Kritzman has demonstrated an intimate knowledge of Montaigne's essays and an engagement with French philosophy and critical theory. The Fabulous Imagination sheds precious new light on one of the founders of modern individualism and on his crucial quest for self-knowledge."-Jean Starobinski, professor emeritus of French literature, University of Geneva

Michel de Montaigne's (1533-1592) Essais was a profound study of human subjectivity. More than three hundred years before the advent of psychoanalysis, Montaigne embarked on a remarkable quest to see and imagine the self from a variety of vantages. Through the questions How shall I live? How can I know myself? he explored the significance of monsters, nightmares, and traumatic memories; the fear of impotence; the fragility of gender; and the act of anticipating and coping with death. In this book, Lawrence D. Kritzman traces Montaigne's development of the Western concept of the self. For Montaigne, imagination lies at the core of an internal universe that influences both the body and the mind. Imagination is essential to human experience. Although Montaigne recognized that the imagination can confuse the individual, "the fabulous imagination" can be curative, enabling the mind's "I" to sustain itself in the face of hardship.

Kritzman begins with Montaigne's study of the fragility of gender and its relationship to the peripatetic movement of a fabulous imagination. He then follows with the essayist's examination of the act of mourning and the power of the imagination to overcome the fear of death. Kritzman concludes with Montaigne's views on philosophy, experience, and the connection between self-portraiture, ethics, and oblivion. His reading demonstrates that the mind's I, as Montaigne envisioned it, sees by imagining that which is not visible, thus offering an alternative to the logical positivism of our age.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"This is one of the few books on Montaigne that fuses analytical skill with humane awareness of why Montaigne matters."-Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities, Yale University

"In this exhilarating and learned book on Montaigne's essays, Lawrence D. Kritzman contemporizes the great writer. Reading him from today's deconstructive America, Kritzman discovers Montaigne always already deep into a dialogue with Jacques Derrida and psychoanalysis. One cannot but admire this fabulous act of translation."-Hélène Cixous

"Throughout his career, Lawrence D. Kritzman has demonstrated an intimate knowledge of Montaigne's essays and an engagement with French philosophy and critical theory. The Fabulous Imagination sheds precious new light on one of the founders of modern individualism and on his crucial quest for self-knowledge."-Jean Starobinski, professor emeritus of French literature, University of Geneva

Michel de Montaigne's (1533-1592) Essais was a profound study of human subjectivity. More than three hundred years before the advent of psychoanalysis, Montaigne embarked on a remarkable quest to see and imagine the self from a variety of vantages. Through the questions How shall I live? How can I know myself? he explored the significance of monsters, nightmares, and traumatic memories; the fear of impotence; the fragility of gender; and the act of anticipating and coping with death. In this book, Lawrence D. Kritzman traces Montaigne's development of the Western concept of the self. For Montaigne, imagination lies at the core of an internal universe that influences both the body and the mind. Imagination is essential to human experience. Although Montaigne recognized that the imagination can confuse the individual, "the fabulous imagination" can be curative, enabling the mind's "I" to sustain itself in the face of hardship.

Kritzman begins with Montaigne's study of the fragility of gender and its relationship to the peripatetic movement of a fabulous imagination. He then follows with the essayist's examination of the act of mourning and the power of the imagination to overcome the fear of death. Kritzman concludes with Montaigne's views on philosophy, experience, and the connection between self-portraiture, ethics, and oblivion. His reading demonstrates that the mind's I, as Montaigne envisioned it, sees by imagining that which is not visible, thus offering an alternative to the logical positivism of our age.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Theory's Empire by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Cataclysms by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Mencius by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book People in Nature by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Hitchcock's Romantic Irony by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Foundations of the Earth by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book The Cinema of Ang Lee by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book African Film and Literature by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Imperfect Balance by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Baptists in America by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Lust on Trial by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Protection Amid Chaos by Lawrence Kritzman
Cover of the book Song and Silence by Lawrence Kritzman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy