Philosophy - General & Miscellaneous, Social Sciences - General & Miscellaneous

The Triangle of Representation

Name: The Triangle of Representation
Author: Christopher Prendergast
ISBN: 9780231506090

by Christopher Prendergast

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

Moving deftly among literary and visual arts, as well as the modern critical canon, Christopher Prendergast's book explores the meaning and value of representation as both a philosophical challenge (What does it mean to create an image that "stands for" something absent?) and a political issue (Who has the right to represent whom?).

The Triangle of Representation raises a range of theoretical, historical, and aesthetic questions, and offers subtle readings of such cultural critics as Raymond Williams, Paul de Man, Edward Said, Walter Benjamin, and Hélène Cixous, in addition to penetrating investigations of visual artists like Gros, Ingres, and Matisse and significant insights into Proust and the onus of translating him. Above all, Prendergast's work is a striking display of how a firm grounding in theory is essential for the exploration of art and literature.

About the Author, Christopher Prendergast

Christopher Prendergast is professor of French literature at Cambridge University and a fellow of the British Academy. His six previous books include The Order of Mimesis and Writing the City: Paris and the Nineteenth Century.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Booknews

Prendergast (literary scholar; academic affiliation not provided) takes up the question of foundations by way of themes and problems in Marxist cultural theory. He then discusses responses to Paul de Man's wartime journalism in occupied Belgium; the work of Edward Said on how one represents other cultures; the distinction between representation and embodiment; and representation in terms of certain transactions and translations across the boundaries of medium, genre, and language. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

SubStance - Lawrence Schehr

Christopher Pendergast has produced an excellent set of studies collected in the work at hand... the volume is to be recommended for its detailed, nuanced, historical analyses of the concept of representation.