"Frequently referred to as the eminence grise of French literature in the interwar years, Jean Paulhan (1884-1968) was not just the editor responsible for giving writers as varied as Francis Ponge and Jean-Paul Sartre their first start in the pages of the renowned Nouvelle Revue Francaise. He also produced a substantial body of work of astonishing eclecticism. From dense, quasi-scientific texts on poetic language, where his critical expertise in contemporary linguistics and psychology is abundantly apparent, to enigmatic recits, which often seem closer to prose poems than anything else, he explored and exploited a vast range of discourses and artistic practices, from the Marquis de Sades early works to Picassos still lives. Yet all his explorations were governed by a primary and unflinching concern to understand what literature owes society. In a series of tightly orchestrated readings, Anna-Louise Milne brings to light the space he sought to carve out, between the art for arts sake ethos and the subordination of art to political ends, thereby establishing more clearly Jean Paulhans place in the twentieth century."
This book asks: what are extreme television media, and are they actually bad for American politics? Taylor explores these questions, and how these media affect political knowledge, trust, efficacy, tolerance, policy attitudes, and political behaviors. Using experiments and data from the National Annenberg Election Study, this book shows how extreme media create both positive and negative externalities in American politics. Many criticize these media because of their bombastic nature, but bombast and affect also create positive effects for some consumers. Previous research shows partisan media exacerbate polarization, and those findings are taken further on immigration policy here. However, they also increase political knowledge, increase internal efficacy, and cause their viewers to engage in informal political behaviors like political discussion and advocacy. The findings suggest there is much to be gained from these media market entrepreneurs, and we should be wary of painting with too broad a brush about their negative effects.
What do we mean when we speak of "beauty"? What do we experience? Beauty is no longer the human experience of the harmonious object; today an aesthetics of difference has revolutionised our ways of seeing the beautiful. Now, we live in a time of "extreme beauty." Extreme Beauty explores art, literature, politics, and philosophy in order to illuminate how the concept and experience of beauty has changed. The essays range from Hegel and Modernism to Marcel Duchamp and the Avant-Garde, postmodern poetics, boredom and Proust, the romance of Arendt and Heidegger, fascism and the consumption of the flesh, postcolonialism and imagination to Derrida and the glory and gift of death.