Understanding Cavell, Understanding Modernism - (Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism) by Paola Marrati (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Stanley Cavell, undoubtedly one of the most singular and influential voices in contemporary philosophy, has written extensively on modernist art - particularly on painting, photography, music, and literature. He has also dedicated an impressive body of work to cinema, whose complex and nuanced status in regard to modernism constitutes one of Cavell's main concerns. However, Cavell's importance for understanding modernism is not exhausted by his interest in, and analyses of, modernist art and literature. Equally significant, and perhaps even more original, is his understanding of ordinary language philosophy as a modernist enterprise in its own terms.

Following the structure for the Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism series, this volume is divided into three distinct parts. The first part, "Conceptualizing Cavell," features introductory essays on Cavell's most important works. The second part, "Cavell and Aesthetics," delves into more specific aspects and problems pertaining to Cavell's aesthetics and its moral and political implications. The third part is an extended glossary of Cavell's key words and concepts.

Review Quotes

It has been widely recognized that Cavell's focus on judgment and grammatical criteria establishes a close connection between our ability to speak and our capacity for aesthetic response. However, the connection between Cavell's account of skepticism and his writings on modernist art and literature has received much less attention. This volume goes a long way towards correcting that imbalance.
R. M. Berry, Professor Emeritus of English, Florida State University, USA

The contributors to this volume offer an impressively deep exploration of one of Cavell's central tasks, which was the renewal of philosophy. In the process, they show how modernism remains an essential, ongoing project, not bound by historical limits. The result is a book that goes beyond conventional understandings of Cavell and of modernism by getting at the heart of both.
Anthony J. Cascardi, Sidney and Margaret Ancker Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Rhetoric, and Spanish, University of California, Berkeley, USA

About the Author

Paola Marrati is Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, USA. She is a member of the Scientific Board of the Center for the Study of French Contemporary Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris, France. Her publications include Gilles Deleuze: Cinema and Philosophy (2008) and Genesis and Trace: Derrida Reading Husserl and Heidegger (2005).