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Very Little ... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy and Literature 2nd Edition
Author(s): Simon Critchley (Author)
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: May 20, 2004
- Edition: 2nd
- Language: English
- Print length: 308 pages
- ISBN-10: 0415340497
- ISBN-13: 9780415340496
Book Description
Very Little ... Almost Nothing puts the question of the meaning of life back at the centre of intellectual debate. Its central concern is how we can find a meaning to human finitude without recourse to anything that transcends that finitude. A profound but secular meditation on the theme of death, Critchley traces the idea of nihilism through Blanchot, Levinas, Jena Romanticism and Cavell, culminating in a reading of Beckett, in many ways the hero of the book.
In this second edition, Simon Critchley has added a revealing and extended new preface, and a new chapter on Wallace Stevens which reflects on the idea of poetry as philosophy.
Editorial Reviews
Review
-Roger Poole, Parallax
"(T)his is an often beautifully written philosophical act of mourning ... It also commands respect because it obliges one to examine the fictions one employs to avoid really doing philosophy. Critchley's steadfastly post-Kantian rejection of theological answers to the questions he asks is very welcome."
-Andrew Bowie, Radical Philosophy
..."manages with some aplomb, to pull off the extraordinarily difficult task of saying something new and interesting about Beckett and Blanchot."
-Martin McQuillan, New Formations
"Critchley keeps his writings for the most part powerful and elegant, wide-ranging but well-focussed. The book is at all times sibylline, moving, insightful, explorative."
-Colin Davis, French Studies
"Simon Critchley's readings of Schlegel, Blanchot and Beckett are remarkably nuanced and perceptive. Much more than an excellent companion to the study of the intertwinings of philosophy and literature, it is an admirable meditation on the ubiquity of finitude and its ungraspability."
-Jacques Taminiaux, Boston College
About the Author
Simon Critchley is Professor of Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty, New School University, New York and at the University of Essex. He is author and editor of many books including The Ethics of Deconstruction and On Humour(also published by Routledge).
