MerleauPonty and the Paradoxes of Expression Philosophy Aesthetics and Cultural Theory

"Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression offers a comprehensive reading of the philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a central figure in 20th-century continental philosophy. By establishing that the paradoxical logic of expression is Merleau-Ponty's fundamental philosophical gesture, this book ties together his diverse work on perception, language, aesthetics, politics and history in order to establish the ontological position he was developing at the time of his sudden death in 1961. Donald A. Landes explores the paradoxical logic of expression as it appears in both Merleau-Ponty's explicit reflections on expression and his non-explicit uses of this logic in his philosophical reflection on other topics, and thus establishes a continuity and a trajectory of his thought that allows for his work to be placed into conversation with contemporary developments in continental philosophy. The book offers the reader a key to understanding Merleau-Ponty's subtle methodology and highlights the urgency and relevance of his research into the ontological significance of expression for today's work in art and cultural theory."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover 1 HalfTitle 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Abbreviations 11 Introduction: The Paradoxical Logic of Expression 16 Meaning, communication, and phenomenological disruptions 20 The embodied experience of expression 24 An eidetic versus a phenomenological description of the paradoxes of expression 31 The weight of the metastable: Simondon and the paradoxical logic of expression 37 Metaphor and the trajectory of sense 42 Expression and the practice of reading 52 1 Against the Establishment: Early Hints of an Expressive Logic 56 The union of the soul and the body: An “anxious trembling” “quickly mastered” 57 A young Schelerian against the Sorbonne 61 A young Marcellian: The body, mystery, and creation 67 2 Expression and The Structure of Behavior 74 Science and the logic of expression 77 Structure and expression: Pensée naturée in the human order 83 “But our conclusion is not that of critical philosophy” 89 3 Expression and Phenomenology of Perception 94 The logic of expression against classical theories of perception 95 The body as expression 99 Expression and the perceived world 109 Time and freedom as expression 113 4 The Politics of Expression 118 “The War Has Taken Place” 119 Humanism and contingency 123 Encroachment and expression 131 The adventures of an expressive dialectic 134 5 The Threads of Silence: Painting, Speaking, Writing 142 “Cézanne’s Doubt” and expressing what exists 143 Saussure and the phenomenology of language 147 Reading the vestiges of The Prose of the World 151 “Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence” 154 6 “The Fundamental of All Culture”: Painting, Ontology, Reading 166 “Eye and Mind” 167 Philosophical interrogation: Expressing The Visible and the Invisible 176 Expressing the intertwining: The flesh as expression 187 Epilogue 196 Notes 200 Bibliography 214 Index 222 This book presents a reading of the philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a central figure in 20th-century continental philosophy.--Publisher's description