The Aesthetic Unconscious

One of today's foremost French philosophers offers here a fascinating and illuminating take on the relevance of Freudian concepts and psychoanalytic interpretations, as emerging from the yet to be discovered meaning of the 19th century aesthetic revolution. In a philosophical dialogue with Lyotard, Ranciere contends that the Freudian inheritance that valorizes pathos over logos, goes against the grain of Freud's own effort to maintain their equal coexistence and inseparability: to preserve at once the pathos of the sickness and the logos of the cure. This erudite and brilliant book is a must-read for students of art, philosophy and psychoanalysis alike.'
Shoshana Felman, Author of Testimony (Crises of Witnessing), and The Juridical Unconscious

"Ranciere offers a fascinating new optic through which to read psychoanalysis, and his original positioning of Freud in relation to art and literature is valuable in a field where partisan defences and blanket dismissals tend to hold sway."
The Philosophers' Magazine