English world rights (Standford UP), Spanish world rights (Universidad Iberoamericana), Russia (NLO), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP)
A lively examination of the life and work of one of the great Enlightenment intellectuals
Philosopher and translator, critic and writer, art agent and encyclopaedist: Denis Diderot, born in Champagne in 1713, died in Paris in 1784, was one of the defining figures of the movement that went down in history as the European Age of Enlightenment. But what is the vanishing point of his multifarious œuvre, which is characterised by downright centrifugal dynamics – unlike the works of his contemporaries Voltaire and Rousseau, Schiller, Kant and Hume?
Along scene from Diderot’s...Philosopher and translator, critic and writer, art agent and encyclopaedist: Denis Diderot, born in Champagne in 1713, died in Paris in 1784, was one of the defining figures of the movement that went down in history as the European Age of Enlightenment. But what is the vanishing point of his multifarious œuvre, which is characterised by downright centrifugal dynamics – unlike the works of his contemporaries Voltaire and Rousseau, Schiller, Kant and Hume?
Along scene from Diderot’s eventful and moving life and in precise readings of his key works Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht pursues this question and develops a new approach to this exceptional intellectual in his elegant book. He contrasts this with the system of Hegel, who was both irritated and fascinated by Diderot’s writings and conceptualised them under the term »the prose of the world«. Gumbrecht shows how radically Diderot engaged with the concretenesses and contingencies of the world and thereby reached the centre of an intellectual periphery that also attracted others: Goya, for example, but also Lichtenberg and Mozart. The movements of thought in this periphery reach us today as those of contemporaries.
»[...] his book [is] a source of highly interesting suggestions.« Joseph Hanimann, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht shows wherein the fascination with the French thinker and writer lies, particularly today.« René Scheu, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»Prose of the World illustrates how Diderot didn’t try to reduce the complexity of the world and of reality by forcing it to fit into a system of ›necessary forms of progress‹ – unlike Hegel, who was fascinated by Diderot’s thought and writings, attempted to in his works. For Diderot, the world remains ›overwhelmingly – and at times excitingly – complex‹.« Susanne Kippenberger, Der Tagesspiegel
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht was born in 1948. He has been teaching at Stanford University since 1989, where he is the Albert Guérard Professor in Literature. In addition to numerous visiting professorships, he has received eight honorary doctorates.
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht was born in 1948. He has been teaching at Stanford University since 1989, where he is the Albert Guérard Professor in...
When it comes to understanding the ontology of individual existence—that is, the everyday behaviors that we all perform and hardly ever think about—the voice has a particularly complicated status....
English world rights (Stanford UP), Spanish world rights (Universidad Iberoamericana), Russia (NLO), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP)
The atomic bomb and the Cold War, but also the German currency reform and that country‘s first soccer Wold Championship (called the »Miracle of Bern«); these are the hallmarks of...
English world rights (Stanford UP), Spanish world rights (Universidad Iberoamericana), Russia (NLO), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP), Poland (Krytyka Polityczna)
English world rights (Columbia UP), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP), Italy (Bompiani), Turkey (Insan)
English world rights (Harvard UP), Spanish world rights (Katz), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Italy (Sossella), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Korea (Dolbegae), Hungary (Kijárat), Ukraine (Dukh i Litera)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Russia (New Literary Observer), Brazilian Portuguese Rights (Companhia das Letras)