Reading with Michel Serres

An Encounter with Time

By Maria L. Assad

Subjects: Postmodernism
Series: SUNY series, The Margins of Literature
Paperback : 9780791442302, 196 pages, June 1999
Hardcover : 9780791442296, 196 pages, June 1999

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Time Promised: Reading Genese

2. Time Immortal: Reading Detachement

3. Time Empirical: Reading Les cinq sens

4. Time Dynamical: Reading Statues

5. Time Inventive: Reading Le Tiers-Instruit

6. Time and Earth: Reading Le Contrat naturel

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Explores the concept of time in the work of Michel Serres, demonstrating close analogies in his work to the discourses of science, literature, and philosophy.

Description

This book identifies a new perspective on time and temporality in the work of the French writer Michel Serres. Time is the veiled notion that underlies Serres's many epistemological parables and fables, and is a consistent metaphor throughout his work. Assad uncovers this common thread through a sustained discussion of certain key concepts in chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, and these concepts come into focus as she continues her detailed readings of Serres's texts, demonstrating close analogies in his work to the discourses of science, literature, and philosophy.

"This is an accessible, interesting, and readable close reading of Serres's post-Hermes work, some of which is yet to be translated into English. Assad knows Serres very well and frequently draws on her expertise in French to elucidate Serres's linguistic and conceptual twists and turns. It is the first book to bring into direct contact Serres's later work with dynamical systems (i.e., chaos) theory and to develop that contact in a sustained way." – Michael Wutz, Weber State University

Reviews

"This is an accessible, interesting, and readable close reading of Serres's post-Hermes work, some of which is yet to be translated into English. Assad knows Serres very well and frequently draws on her expertise in French to elucidate Serres's linguistic and conceptual twists and turns. It is the first book to bring into direct contact Serres's later work with dynamical systems (i.e., chaos) theory and to develop that contact in a sustained way." – Michael Wutz, Weber State University