search for books and compare prices
cover image
Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought
Price
Store
Arrives
Preparing
Shipping

Jump quickly to results on these stores:

The price is the lowest for any condition, which may be new or used; other conditions may also be available.
Jump down to see edition details for: Hardcover | Paperback
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher Univ of California Pr
Publication date October 1, 1993
Binding Hardcover
Book category Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13 9780520081543
ISBN-10 0520081544
Dimensions 1.50 by 6.50 by 9.75 in.
Weight 2.70 lbs.
Availability§ Out of Print
Original list price $85.00
Other format details university press
§As reported by publisher
Summaries and Reviews
Amazon.com description: Product Description:
Long considered "the noblest of the senses," vision has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by a wide range of thinkers who question its dominance in Western culture. These critics of vision, especially prominent in twentieth-century France, have challenged its allegedly superior capacity to provide access to the world. They have also criticized its supposed complicity with political and social oppression through the promulgation of spectacle and surveillance.

Martin Jay turns to this discourse surrounding vision and explores its often contradictory implications in the work of such influential figures as Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Guy Debord, Luce Irigaray, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida. Jay begins with a discussion of the theory of vision from Plato to Descartes, then considers its role in the French Enlightenment before turning to its status in the culture of modernity. From consideration of French Impressionism to analysis of Georges Bataille and the Surrealists, Roland Barthes's writings on photography, and the film theory of Christian Metz, Jay provides lucid and fair-minded accounts of thinkers and ideas widely known for their difficulty.

His book examines the myriad links between the interrogation of vision and the pervasive antihumanist, antimodernist, and counter-enlightenment tenor of much recent French thought. Refusing, however, to defend the dominant visual order, he calls instead for a plurality of "scopic regimes." Certain to generate controversy and discussion throughout the humanities and social sciences, Downcast Eyes will consolidate Jay's reputation as one of today's premier cultural and intellectual historians.


Editions
Hardcover
Book cover for 9780520081543
 
The price comparison is for this edition
from Univ of California Pr (October 1, 1993)
9780520081543 | details & prices | 6.50 × 9.75 × 1.50 in. | 2.70 lbs | List price $85.00
About: Long considered "the noblest of the senses," vision has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by a wide range of thinkers who question its dominance in Western culture.
Paperback
Book cover for 9780520088856
 
Reprint edition from Univ of California Pr (September 1, 1994)
9780520088856 | details & prices | 6.25 × 9.25 × 1.50 in. | 2.30 lbs | List price $38.95

Pricing is shown for items sent to or within the U.S., excluding shipping and tax. Please consult the store to determine exact fees. No warranties are made express or implied about the accuracy, timeliness, merit, or value of the information provided. Information subject to change without notice. isbn.nu is not a bookseller, just an information source.