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Listening

Listening

by Jean-Luc Nancy (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2007

    $34.11
Synopsis

In this lyrical meditation on listening, Jean-Luc Nancy examines sound in relation to the human body. How is listening different from hearing? What does listening entail? How does what is heard differ from what is seen? Can philosophy even address listening, ecouter, as opposed to entendre, which means both hearing and understanding?

Unlike the visual arts, sound produces effects that persist long after it has stopped. The body, Nancy says, is itself like an echo chamber, responding to music by inner vibrations as well as outer attentiveness. Since the ear has no eyelid (Quignard), sound cannot be blocked out or ignored: our whole being is involved in listening, just as it is involved in interpreting what it hears.

The mystery of music and of its effects on the listener is subtly examined. Nancy's skill as a philosopher is to bring the reader companionably along with him as he examines these fresh and vital questions; by the end of the book the reader feels as if listening very carefully to a person talking quietly, close to the ear.

$34.11

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 100
 Edition: Annotated
 Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 15 May 2007
ISBN 10: 0823227731
ISBN 13: 9780823227730

Media Reviews
In Charlotte Mandell's splendid translation of Jean-Luc Nancy's brief but passionate A l'ecoute, the French philosopher gives us a glimpse of this completely different philosophy of music -Current Musicology Listening adds a much needed poetic register to the philosophy of music and sonic culture. -Parallax
Author Bio
Jean-Luc Nancy is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Universite Marc Bloch, Strasbourg. His wide-ranging thought is developed in many books, including Expectation: Philosophy, Literature; The Possibility of a World; The Banality of Heidegger; The Disavowed Community; and, with Adele Van Reeth, Coming (all Fordham). Charlotte Mandell has translated more than forty books and is the recipient of numerous awards.