On What Cannot Be Said: Apophatic Discourses in Philosophy, Religion, Literature, and the Arts: Volume 2: Modern and Contemporary Transformations [Paperback]

William Franke (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0268028834 | ISBN-13: 978-0268028831 | Publication Date: April 1, 2007 | Edition: 1

"Any writer worth his salt knows that what cannot be spoken is ultimately the thing worth speaking about; yet most often this humbling awareness is unsaid or covered up. There are some who have made it their business, however, to court failure and acknowledge defeat, to explore the impasse of words before silence. William Franke has created an anthology of such explorations, undertaken in poetry and prose, that stretches from Plato to the present. Whether the subject of discourse is All or Nothing does not matter: the struggle of speech to name the unnameable is the same. This ambitious two-volume undertaking demonstrates a preoccupation as old as Western civilization itself: the limits of language and the virtue of being at a loss for words. How long we have been raiding the Inarticulate!" --Peter S. Hawkins, Boston University

"Developments in critical theory during the past two decades have led to renewed interest in negative theology. Books like Languages of the Unsayable (1989), Negation and Theology (1992), Derrida and Negative Theology (1992), and The Otherness of God (1998) have signaled the resurgence of this ancient tradition. William Franke's distinctive contribution is to provide the background and texts from which these recent developments have emerged." --Mark Taylor, Williams College

Apophasis has become a major topic in the humanities, particularly in philosophy, religion, and literature. This monumental two-volume anthology gathers together most of the important historical works on apophaticism and illustrates the diverse trajectories of apophatic discourse in ancient, modern, and postmodern times. William Franke provides a major introductory essay on apophaticism at the beginning of each volume, and shorter introductions to each anthology selection. The second volume, Modern and Contemporary Transformations, contains texts by Hölderlin, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Dickinson, Rilke, Kafka, Rosenzweig, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Weil, Schoenberg, Adorno, Beckett, Celan, Levinas, Derrida, Marion, and more.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

WILLIAM FRANKE is associate professor of comparative literature and religious studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Dante's Interpretive Journey. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0268028834
• ISBN-13: 978-0268028831
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and well presented collection., August 4, 2011

By 

Jack L. Sammons (Macon, Ga USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On What Cannot Be Said: Apophatic Discourses in Philosophy, Religion, Literature, and the Arts: Volume 2: Modern and Contemporary Transformations (Paperback)

This is a terrific collection of what might be considered the essential documents of apophatic discourse. This volume contains modern and contemporary versions of writings about that which cannot be said. The introduction is excellent, although really it is more of an article on its own than an introduction, and each document is also very thoughtfully introduced, primarily by putting it in the overall context of the author's work and giving a thought or two to how it relates to a central theme of negative theology. In fact, rather than entitling this "apophatic discourses, it might have been better to say that these are (mostly) secular discourses about negative theology for this, it seems to me, is the author's true interest. In any case, the book is extremely useful for anyone thinking about that which cannot be said. There are surely quibbles -- well, more than quibbles -- along the way with the author's take on the various pieces, and some of the choices are, well, clearly idiosyncratic and perhaps eve a little strange. This, however, is inevitable in a collection such as this that breaks new ground in creating a discipline. While already familiar with most of the pieces, I truly enjoyed the journey that this collection creates. It's a lovely bit of work.