Błądzące słowa

Overview & Synopsis

This book introduces into the Polish humanities the first holistic presentation of the philosophy of Jacques Rancière. Such a synthesis, however, must take into account several specific factors. Firstly, Rancière is an adisciplinary thinker, working within the space of discursive ambiguity. His ambition is to chart the paths between different domains, which would allow one to put on hold the validation of authority they are linked with. Following these paths, we cross territories traditionally reserved for the theory of politics, sociology, psychology, aesthetics, literary history, etc. Secondly, according to the French philosopher, all thinking is based on re-thinking, moving the subject from the place it usually presents itself in. This is why Rambling Words is an attempt at a multi-faceted problematisation of several issues and notions (such as dividing the sensual, police and politics, mute words, discord, and so on). Thirdly, Rancière’s musings emerge from a dispute; in order to understand the original idea of political empowerment or the concept of emancipation expressed through the use of the figures of ‘the ignorant schoolmaster’ and ‘the plebeian philosopher’, one has to reconstruct the disputes they stem from. This is why the leading characters of this book are thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Louis Althusser, Chantal Mouffe, or Alain Badiou. Simultaneously, philosophy of literature is also at the centre of interest, in line with the title of the work. Analyses of historically changeable regimes of art are accompanied by interpretations of canonical works, whose authors are writers of different epochs (Gustave Flaubert, Max Jacob, Bertold Brecht, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth). Literature reveals its hidden political potential here, as it modifies the map of that, which is possible to be thought, to be named, to be felt and done.