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Genealogies of the Text: Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Genealogies of the Text: Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Jeffrey Mehlman
SeriesCambridge Studies in French
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:276
Dimensions(mm): Height 215,Width 137
Category/GenreLiterary studies - from c 1900 -
ISBN/Barcode 9780521032353
ClassificationsDewey:840.9
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 23 November 2006
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In this 1995 book, which includes a substantial introduction, Jeffrey Mehlman confronts the politically devastating resonances in the work of several leading French writers. The essays focus on the series of enigmas surrounding the 'Blanchot affair' - a scandal provoked by Mehlman's revelation in 1977 that Maurice Blanchot, one of the tutelary figures of contemporary French thought, had in the 1930s been a prominent fascist journalist. Mehlman takes the issue of Blanchot's forgotten political essays deep into the most revered - and misunderstood - of his novels, L'Arret de mort. Using this affair as a point of departure, Mehlman sheds light on the question of the usability of psychoanalysis for literary readings (examining, for example, Baudelaire, Mallarme and Valery); he also investigates the ideological and political connotations of similar literary and theoretical material. The volume as a whole provides a consistently provocative meditation on literature, ethics, and the experience of the French in World War II.

Reviews

'... heuristic value of Mehlman's approach is undeniable ...' Contemporary European History