Reading Paul Valéry: Universe in Mind

ISBN-13: 9780521584944 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 334 str.

Gifford, Paul

Opis

The most recently acknowledged--and the most private--of the masters of modernity, Paul Valery is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historians and social anthropologists, always concerned with exploring the potential and limits of the human mind. This volume of essays by internationally recognized scholars offers the first comprehensive account in English or French of Valery's work. It brings into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valery called his "unitary mind in a thousand pieces," and offers new perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings.

Spis treści

Introduction; Part I. Self-Science: 1. Towards a biography of the mind Ned Bastet; 2. Thinking-writing games of the Cahiers Paul Gifford; 3. Paradigms of the self: Valéry's mythical models Robert Pickering; 4. The fascination of science Judith Robinson-Valéry; 5. An art of rethinking: Valéry's 'negative philosophy' Régine Pietra; Part II. Self-Writings: 6. The poetics of practice and theory M. Jarrety; 7. 'Esprit, Attente, pur, éternel suspens … ' Valéry's prose poetry Stephen Romer; 8. The Dialogues and Mon Faust: Valéry's republic of the mind William Marx; 9. Counter-fiction Brian Stimpson; 10. Major poems: the voice of the subject J.-M. Maulpoix; 11. Other voices: intertextuality and the art of pure poetry Suzanne Nash; 12. Manuscript steps: 'Les Pas' Florence de Lussy; Part III. Body, Mind, World: 13. An aesthetics of the subject: music and the visual arts Brian Stimpson; 14. Politics, history and the modern world Nicole Celeyrette-Pietri; 15. Valéry and the feminine Kirsteen Anderson; 16. Dream and the unconscious Malcolm Bowie; 17. Self and other: Valéry's 'lost object of desire' Paul Gifford; Conclusion.