POPULARITY
durée : 00:06:45 - L'Instant poésie - Le comédien Denis Lavant nous fait entendre un extrait du "Mal des fantômes", un poème du Roumain visionnaire Benjamin Fondane qui évoque celles et ceux contraints à l'exil. - invités : Denis Lavant Comédien
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies
Among the Jewish writers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to France in the 1910s and 1920s, a number chose to switch from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, a language that represented both a literary center and the promises of French universalism. But under the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, these Jewish émigré writers—among them Irène Némirovsky, Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, and Elsa Triolet—continued to write in their adopted language, even as the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws. In Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices in Wartime France (Stanford UP, 2020), Julia Elsky argues that these writers reexamined both their Jewishness and their place as authors in France through the language in which they wrote. The group of authors Elsky considers depicted key moments in the war from their perspective as Jewish émigrés, including the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the roundups and internment camps, and the Resistance in France and in London. Writing in French, they expressed multiple cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, challenging the boundaries between center and periphery, between French and foreign, even when their sense of belonging was being violently denied. Julia Elsky is Assistant Professor of French at Loyola University Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies
Episode Notes In this episode we discuss Benjamin Fondane's essay "Man Before History: The Sound and the Fury" available in the volume Existential Monday. We are joined by Aaron Cummings, a PhD student in the History of Ideas at the University of Texas at Dallas, who previously wrote on Fondane for Athwart. If you liked this episode, please leave us a review! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us on our website. Or, if you would like to read and listen to more of our work, go to www.athwart.org. Image: painting of MacBeth Act I, Season 3 by Samuel John Egbert Jones via Wikimedia Commons. Music courtesy of yn00001 via Musopen
We engage with the existentialism of Benjamin Fondane, an existentialist philosopher who is not widely celebrated in the English speaking world but whose name enjoys renown among Francophones. Craig, Will, Adam, and Taylor look at “Existential Monday and the Sunday of History”, an essay which seeks to define the role of the existential philosopher against those philosophies which he claims erase or obscure ‘the existent’. Other figures in the discussion include Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, Simondon, Deleuze, and Laruelle.
Host editors Claire Bowman and Annar Veröld continue their discussion of poets whose work they've turned to during the pandemic while in quarantine. They discuss the work of poets Benjamin Fondane, and Haryette Mullen.
durée : 00:32:42 - Talmudiques - par : Marc-Alain Ouaknin - . - réalisation : Dany Journo
durée : 00:32:18 - Talmudiques - par : Marc-Alain Ouaknin - . - réalisation : Dany Journo
Pour situer l'homme, il nous faut dresser une brève biographie de Jean Métellus. Nous allons le faire, un peu avec l'aide de l'auteur lui-même. « Mon nom, Métellus, est lié à la condition d'esclave. Les noms nègres, tous les noms haïtiens en tout cas, sont des noms qui ont été donnés par les propriétaires des plantations. Ce ne sont pas des noms africains puisqu'on les avait enlevés. Les «Métellus» sont aussi des esclaves, sans rapport avec les descendants d'un général romain. Je porte mon nom sans oublier d'où il vient », raconte le poète. Retenons seulement que Jean Métellus est né à Jacmel en 1937. Il passe une enfance qu'il qualifie lui-même d'heureuse à Jacmel, au milieu de quinze frères et sœurs. Son père dirigeait une boulangerie industrielle. À vingt ans, il devient professeur de mathématiques et de sciences naturelles. Arrive alors le régime de «Papa Doc», qui le pousse à l'exil. Il part pour Paris, où il étudie la médecine et se spécialise en neurologie et dans les troubles du langage, obtenant son doctorat en médecine en 1970. Puis un jour, le neurolinguiste devient poète vers l'âge de trente ans. «Je n'étais pas absolument conscient de ce que je faisais. Après, j'ai continué parce que je ne pouvais plus m'arrêter», explique le médecin-écrivain.Poète, essayiste, romancier et dramaturge, Jean Métellus a obtenu plusieurs prix littéraires. Le Prix André Barré en 1982, le Prix de la Fondation Roland de Jouvenel en 1984. En 2006, le Grand Prix international Léopold Sédar Senghor de poésie de langue française. En 2007, le Grand prix de poésie de la Société des gens de lettres. En 2010, le Prix international de Poésie francophone Benjamin Fondane. « Redonne à cette fumée qui brouillait les premières notes de ton chantLa vision sonore d'un avenir à construire. »Ces vers résument le travail littéraire de cet athlète de l'écriture qu'est Jean Métellus. Il y a bien évidemment la très lointaine et très présente Afrique. Et il y a Haïti. Haïti à la présence obsédante.Bien sûr Haïti, c'est Papa Doc et tous les malheurs qu'on connaît, mais c'est d'abord la première île qui a aboli l'esclavage, grâce à deux hommes: Toussaint Louverture et son adjoint Dessalines.Ce sont deux nègres qui ont proclamé l'indépendance en août 1793. Haïti s'appelait à l'époque Saint-Domingue, appellation donnée par les Occidentaux. Le 1er janvier 1804, le pays a repris son nom, Ayti, nom indien retrouvé par Dessalines, qui signifie «pays haut et montagneux». Ce nom est aussi un hommage aux premiers occupants, des Indiens disparus. Une nation qui a été chantée dans la pièce Anacaona, une œuvre qui a fait date. Anacaona évoque le destin d'une reine haïtienne brûlée vive par les conquistadores espagnols.
Pour situer l’homme, il nous faut dresser une brève biographie de Jean Métellus. Nous allons le faire, un peu avec l’aide de l’auteur lui-même. « Mon nom, Métellus, est lié à la condition d’esclave. Les noms nègres, tous les noms haïtiens en tout cas, sont des noms qui ont été donnés par les propriétaires des plantations. Ce ne sont pas des noms africains puisqu’on les avait enlevés. Les «Métellus» sont aussi des esclaves, sans rapport avec les descendants d’un général romain. Je porte mon nom sans oublier d’où il vient », raconte le poète. Retenons seulement que Jean Métellus est né à Jacmel en 1937. Il passe une enfance qu’il qualifie lui-même d’heureuse à Jacmel, au milieu de quinze frères et sœurs. Son père dirigeait une boulangerie industrielle. À vingt ans, il devient professeur de mathématiques et de sciences naturelles. Arrive alors le régime de «Papa Doc», qui le pousse à l’exil. Il part pour Paris, où il étudie la médecine et se spécialise en neurologie et dans les troubles du langage, obtenant son doctorat en médecine en 1970. Puis un jour, le neurolinguiste devient poète vers l’âge de trente ans. «Je n’étais pas absolument conscient de ce que je faisais. Après, j’ai continué parce que je ne pouvais plus m’arrêter», explique le médecin-écrivain. Poète, essayiste, romancier et dramaturge, Jean Métellus a obtenu plusieurs prix littéraires. Le Prix André Barré en 1982, le Prix de la Fondation Roland de Jouvenel en 1984. En 2006, le Grand Prix international Léopold Sédar Senghor de poésie de langue française. En 2007, le Grand prix de poésie de la Société des gens de lettres. En 2010, le Prix international de Poésie francophone Benjamin Fondane. « Redonne à cette fumée qui brouillait les premières notes de ton chantLa vision sonore d’un avenir à construire. » Ces vers résument le travail littéraire de cet athlète de l’écriture qu’est Jean Métellus. Il y a bien évidemment la très lointaine et très présente Afrique. Et il y a Haïti. Haïti à la présence obsédante.Bien sûr Haïti, c’est Papa Doc et tous les malheurs qu’on connaît, mais c’est d’abord la première île qui a aboli l’esclavage, grâce à deux hommes: Toussaint Louverture et son adjoint Dessalines.Ce sont deux nègres qui ont proclamé l’indépendance en août 1793. Haïti s’appelait à l’époque Saint-Domingue, appellation donnée par les Occidentaux. Le 1er janvier 1804, le pays a repris son nom, Ayti, nom indien retrouvé par Dessalines, qui signifie «pays haut et montagneux». Ce nom est aussi un hommage aux premiers occupants, des Indiens disparus. Une nation qui a été chantée dans la pièce Anacaona, une œuvre qui a fait date. Anacaona évoque le destin d'une reine haïtienne brûlée vive par les conquistadores espagnols.
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Fondane, a Franco-Romanian writer and contributor to the development of existential philosophy in the 1930s and 40s, is in the process of being rediscovered. His work has gained a new relevance in the contemporary period due in part to the way it anticipates some of the core themes and interests of critical theory, including the limits of rationality and subjectivity, and ideas about the ineffable and the impossible. Until recently, few of Fondane’s writings, aside from his poetry, had been translated into English, despite a long-standing recognition of their importance to philosophical debates in the period, including by Fondane’s contemporaries, such as Lev Shestov and Albert Camus. A new collection entitled Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays edited and translated by Bruce Baugh and published by the New York Review of Books in 2016, aims to rectify this. Professor Baugh, who teaches Philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, has written extensively on existential thought and continental philosophy, and is the author of French Hegel: From Surrealism to Postmodernism (Routledge, 2003). Professor Baugh’s work on Fondane will be of interest to a wide variety of readers seeking a better understanding of a thinker whose work invites consideration alongside his better known contemporaries Walter Benjamin and the early Levinas, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices