Notebooks, Volume 2P. Lang, 2000 - 594 pages The Cahiers/Notebooks of Paul Valéry are a unique form of writing. They reveal Valéry as one of the most radical and creative minds of the twentieth century, encompassing a wide range of investigation into all spheres of human activity. His work explores the arts, the sciences, philosophy, history and politics, investigating linguistic, psychological and social issues, all linked to the central questions, relentlessly posed: 'what is the human mind and how does it work?', 'what is the potential of thought and what are its limits?' But we encounter here too, Valéry the writer: exploratory, fragmentary texts undermine the boundaries between analysis and creativity, between theory and practice. Neither journal nor diary, eluding the traditional genres of writing, the Notebooks offer lyrical passages, writing of extreme beauty, prose poems of extraordinary descriptive power alongside theoretical considerations of poetics, ironic aphorisms and the most abstract kind of analysis. The concerns and the insights that occupied Valéry's inner voyages over more than 50 years remain as relevant as ever for the contemporary reader: for the Self that is his principal subject is at once singular and universal. |
Contents
Foreword | 7 |
Signs and abbreviations | 25 |
Index of Proper Names and Works | 581 |
Copyright | |
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abstract action arbitrary artist beautiful become Berthe Morisot Cahiers Cahiers/Notebooks classical colour combinations complete construction create critics defined desire dream effect EGO SCRIPTOR elements everything existence expression eyes Faust feel French French poetry function give Hérodiade Hugo Ibid idea impossible impression infinite intention language literary literature look Mallarmé means mind Molière nature never novel object oneself painting particular Pascal Paul Valéry perception perfect person play poem poet poetic poetry POIETICS possible precise problem produce prose pure Racine reader Reproduced Reproduced with var resonance Rhumbs rhyme Richard Wagner Romanticism sense someone sound Stendhal Tartuffe Tel Quel There's things thought Tiberius transformations true Untitled Valéry's verse VIII voice Voltaire Wagner whole words writing XVII XVIII XXVI