Description
Over the course of a distinguished career, critic Leo Bersani has tackled a range of issues in his writing, and this collection gathers together some of his finest work. Beginning with one of the foundations of queer theory - his famous meditation on how sex leads to a shattering of the self, "Is the Rectum a Grave?" - this volume charts the inspired connections Bersani has made between sexuality, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. Over the course of these essays, Bersani grapples with thinkers ranging from Plato to Descartes to Georg Simmel. Foucault and Freud recur as key figures, and although Foucault rejected psychoanalysis, Bersani contends that by considering his ideas alongside Freud's, one gains a clearer understanding of human identity and how we relate to one another. For Bersani, art represents a crucial guide for conceiving new ways of connecting to the world, and so, in many of these essays, he stresses the importance of aesthetics, analyzing works by Jean Genet, Caravaggio, Proust, Pedro Almodovar, and Jean-Luc Godard. Documenting over two decades in the life of one of the best minds working in the humanities today, "Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays" is a unique opportunity to explore the fruitful career of a formidable intellect.
About the Author
Leo Bersani is professor emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Homos and coauthor, with Adam Phillips, of Intimacies, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
"In this fascinating and disturbing book, two writers with prose styles and intellectual styles that are at once famously identifiable and intimately personal celebrate the possibility of relationships that defy identity and undo personality." - Stephen Greenblatt "This is a beautifully crafted book, one that underscores how the social life of the psyche is a matter of risk, wager, suspense, excitation, bodies, talk, and all manner of things both dangerous and sustaining." - Judith Butler"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226043548
Author Leo Bersani
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 15mm * 1mm
About the Author
Leo Bersani is professor emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Homos and coauthor, with Adam Phillips, of Intimacies, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
"In this fascinating and disturbing book, two writers with prose styles and intellectual styles that are at once famously identifiable and intimately personal celebrate the possibility of relationships that defy identity and undo personality." - Stephen Greenblatt "This is a beautifully crafted book, one that underscores how the social life of the psyche is a matter of risk, wager, suspense, excitation, bodies, talk, and all manner of things both dangerous and sustaining." - Judith Butler"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226043548
Author Leo Bersani
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 15mm * 1mm
