Avital Ronell Livres

Avital Ronell, known for her works like Crack Wars and The Telephone Book, confronts the enigmatic figure of Goethe in her exploration. Revered by Germanists, Goethe's legacy raises questions about what he truly represents. His dramatic entrance into life—thought to be stillborn before being revived—parallels his later death, which was met with acclaim as he became an immortal spirit. This spirit soon began to haunt literary discourse, particularly through the conversations recorded by Johann Peter Eckermann, who published two volumes detailing his exchanges with Goethe. These texts blur the lines between author and subject, as Eckermann himself becomes a creation of Goethe's influence. The master of works like Faust and Wilhelm Meister continues to resonate through the thoughts of literary giants such as Kafka, Nietzsche, and Freud, leaving an indelible mark on their works. In her first book, originally published in 1986, Ronell delves into the complex notion of spirit, a topic often overlooked by literary scholars. She begins at the precipice of this abyss, bringing the elusive concept into focus. In a new preface, she reflects on the context of the book's writing and its reception, further enriching the discourse surrounding Goethe's enduring legacy.

Explores the fading empire of cognition, modulating stupidity into idiocy, puerility, and the figure of the ridiculous philosopher instituted by Kant. Drawing on a range of writers including Dostoevsky, Schlegel, Musil, and Wordsworth, this book investigates ignorance, dumbfoundedness, and the limits of reason.

Deals with the war perpetrated by highly determined reactionary forces on science and research. This work explores the crucial operations of an uncontestable legitimating machine. It offers a tour-de-force reading of legal, pharmaceutical, artistic, scientific, Zen, and historical grids that depend upon different types of testability.

Exploring the intersection of art and biotechnology, this book presents a collection of 36 newly imagined organisms created by Eduardo Kac, a leading figure in bio art. It reflects on how fantastical creatures from mythology have evolved into real entities through modern science. Accompanied by insights from philosopher Avital Ronell, the work includes Kac's "Anthroduction" and a whimsical taxonomy that proposes a novel classification for future species, blending creativity with scientific inquiry in the 21st century.

Sixteen performance artists discuss human sexuality, racism, sexism, and the ways in which art can be used to break down taboos and dogma.

Avital Ronell is a prominent figure in the humanities, holding multiple professorships at New York University and the European Graduate School. She co-directs a program focused on trauma and violence studies and has authored several influential works exploring themes such as writing, media, and philosophy. Her notable publications include titles like Dictations: On Haunted Writing and The Telephone Book, showcasing her interdisciplinary approach and critical insights into contemporary issues.

The collection showcases the influential work of Friedrich Kittler, a prominent German media scholar, through essays by both established and emerging scholars. It explores Kittler's extensive contributions, spanning from his early studies on German romanticism to his later analyses of ancient Greece, providing a comprehensive understanding of his intellectual journey and impact on media studies.

"It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue." Thus spoke Hamlet, one of the great kvetchers of literature. Every day, gripers challenge our patience and compassion. Yet Pollyannas rile us up with their grotesque contentment and unfathomable rejection of protest. Avital Ronell considers how literature and philosophy treat bellyachers, wailers, and grumps--and the complaints they lavish on the rest of us. Combining her trademark jazzy panache with a fearless range of readings, Ronell opens a dialog with readers that discusses thinkers with whom she has directly engaged. Beginning with Hamlet, and with a candid awareness of her own experiences, Ronell proceeds to show how complaining is aggravated, distracted, stifled, and transformed. She moves on to the exemplary complaints of Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, and Barbara Johnson and examines the complaint-riven history of deconstruction. Infused with the author's trademark wit, Complaint takes friends, colleagues, and all of us on a courageous philosophical journey.

What position does America occupy in the recent history of Western philosophy? At once the destination for a series of fantasies and the place from which a new relationship to thought originated, America incarnates a dark continent whose strangeness and singularity has driven thinkers outside of their own philosophical comfort zone – often forcing them to show anger, anxiety or desire towards what they considered a challenge or a threat. This book provides a mapping of this complex relationship between America and philosophy through a series of examples drawn from a wide range of authors, from Freud and Heidegger to Adorno, Derrida and many others. It also examines the way American thinkers themselves have imported, used and abused philosophical views coming from Europe, often transforming them into something other than what they were. Is then philosophy an anti-American discourse, or America an anti-philosophical country? Or is it, rather, that America provokes philosophy from a place where its own history affirms the impossibilities, paradoxes and contradictions of philosophy itself? At a time when the syntagm “America” has come to crystallize a certain understanding of the world order, interrogating the place that it occupies in our intellectual tradition is also a way to engage critically with the violence attached to it. “America” is a syntagm for violence, but this violence might very well be different than we thought.

Avital Ronell ist eine der bekanntesten und anregendsten Germanistinnen der Welt; sie arbeitete u. a. mit Jacques Derrida und Sarah Kofman. Ihr neues Buch analysiert den Untergang verschiedener Weisen der Autorität. In Texten über Alexandre Kojève, Sarah Kofman und Hannah Arendt prüft sie die Melancholie, mit der der Burnout der Autorität diagnostiziert wird. War Autorität nicht ein stabilisierender Faktor vieler Lebensformen, deren Kritik immer von Achtung fürs Kritisierte getragen wurde? In der Tat ist Dekonstruktion niemals Zerstörung. In Zeiten weit um sich greifender politischer Regression, von der der Populismus nur eine Form ist, haben Ronells originelle Ideen eine aktuelle Bedeutung.