Readings in Infancy

Jean-François Lyotard's collection of essays, originally published in French in 1991, explores his concept of infantia, the infancy of thought that resists development. The essays respond to key figures in cultural modernism, including James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud, and are contextualized with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 23 February 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Nobody knows how to write. Thus opens this carefully nuanced and accessible collection of essays by one of the most important writer-philosophers of the 20th century, Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). First published in French in 1991 as Lectures d'enfance, these essays have never been printed as a collection in English. In them, Lyotard investigates his idea of infantia, or the infancy of thought that resists all forms of development, either human or technological. Each essay responds to works by writers and thinkers who are central to cultural modernism, such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud. This volume – with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford – contextualises Lyotard's thought and demonstrates his continued relevance today.

Nobody knows how to write. Thus opens this carefully nuanced and accessible collection of essays by one of the most important writer-philosophers of the 20th century, Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998). First published in French in 1991 as Lectures d'enfance, these essays have never been printed as a collection in English. In them, Lyotard investigates his idea of infantia, or the infancy of thought that resists all forms of development, either human or technological. Each essay responds to works by writers and thinkers who are central to cultural modernism, such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sigmund Freud. This volume – with a new introduction and afterword by Robert Harvey and Kiff Bamford – contextualises Lyotard's thought and demonstrates his continued relevance today.

Weight: 242g
Dimension: 136 x 216 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350167346