Expectation

Expectation is a major volume of Jean-Luc Nancy's writings on literature, written across three decades but, for the most part, previously unavailable in English.

More substantial than literary criticism, these essays collectively negotiate literature's relation to philosophy. Nancy pursues such questions as literature's claims to truth, the status of narrative, the relation of poetry and prose, and the unity of a book or of a text, and he addresses a number of major European writers, including Dante, Sterne, Rousseau, Holderlin, Proust, Joyce, and Blanchot.

The final section offers a number of impressive pieces by Nancy that completely merge his concerns for philosophy and literature and philosophy-as-literature. These include a lengthy parody of Val'ry's "La Jeune Parque," several original poems by Nancy, and a beautiful prose-poetic discourse on an installation by Italian artist Claudio Parmiggiani that incorporates the Faust theme.

Opening with a substantial Introduction by Jean-Michel Rabat' that elaborates Nancy's importance as a literary thinker, this book constitutes the most substantial statement to date by one of today's leading philosophers on a discipline that has been central to his work across his career.

Asteptarea este un volum major al scrierilor lui Jean-Luc Nancy despre literatura, scrise de-a lungul a trei decenii, dar, in cea mai mare parte, indisponibile anterior in limba engleza. Nancy urmareste intrebari precum pretentiile literaturii la adevar, statutul naratiunii, relatia dintre poezie si proza si unitatea unei carti sau a unui text si se adreseaza unui numar de scriitori europeni majori, inclusiv Dante, Sterne, Rousseau, Holderlin, Proust, Joyce si Blanchot. Sectiunea finala ofera o serie de piese impresionante ale lui Nancy care imbina complet preocuparile sale pentru filozofie si literatura si filozofie ca literatura.