Dissenting Words - by Jacques Rancière (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Dissenting Words is a lively and engaging collection of interviews that span the length of Jacques Rancière's trajectory, from the critique of Althusserian Marxism and the work on proletarian thinking in the nineteenth century to the more recent reflections on politics and aesthetics. Across these pages, Rancière discusses the figures, concepts and arguments he has introduced to the theoretical landscape over the past forty years, the themes and concerns that have animated his thinking, the positions he has defended and the wide range of objects and discourses that have attracted his attention and through which his thought has unfolded: history, pedagogy, literature, art, cinema. But more than reflecting on the continuities, turns, ruptures and deviations in his thought, Rancière recasts his work in a different discursive register. And the pleasure we experience in reading these interviews - with their asides, displacements and reconstructions - stems from the way Rancière transforms the voice of the thinker commenting on his texts and elucidating his concepts into another, and equally rich, manifestation of his thought.


Core sections of this edition are translated from the French publication Et tant pis pour le gens fatigués, by Jacques Rancière, (c) Editions Amsterdam 2009, published by arrangement Agence litteraire Pierre Astier & Associés

Review Quotes

Jacques Rancière has spent a career crossing disciplinary boundaries. In this collection of interviews he reflects on the interplay between cinema, politics, literature, history, and education in his work. These interviews are an excellent introduction to his thought; they will also offer new insights to those already familiar with his work.

Most of the material here is available in English for the first time. This is a crucial book, full of fascinating insights into Ranciere's thought, and expertly edited and introduced.

About the Author

Jacques Rancière taught at the University of Paris VIII, France, from 1969 to 2000, occupying the Chair of Aesthetics and Politics from 1990 until his retirement.

Emiliano Battista is the translator of Jacques Rancière's Althusser's Lesson (2011) and Film Fables (2006).