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Au loin la liberté: essai sur Tchekhov
Los cuentos de Chéjov presentan múltiples versiones de un escenario simple: cualquier cosa podría suceder. Un día, al azar, en cualquier lugar, la vida ordinaria de servidumbre ha sido traspasada por una aparición: la libertad está ahí, en la distancia, haciendo señas e indicando que otra vida es posible, una en la que sabemos por qué vivimos. La mayoría, sin embargo, rehúye la llamada. Prefieren que no ocurra nada. Pero Chéjov no se rinde. Persiste en acompañar a sus personajes a esos lugares donde sus vidas podrían dar un vuelco. De cuento en cuento, teje este tiempo impulsado por la implacable máquina de la reproducción, pero que, de pausa en pausa, se desgarra y se desdobla en el tiempo de una presunta libertad que se niega a terminar, pero que sigue siendo una posibilidad en suspenso. Podríamos llamar a esto una política de la literatura.
De la mano de uno de los grandes pensadores europeos, un libro que abre nuevas y fascinantes lecturas de la obra del escritor ruso.
De la mano de uno de los grandes pensadores europeos, un libro que abre nuevas y fascinantes lecturas de la obra del escritor ruso.
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 13, 2024
About the author
Jacques Rancière
214 books506 followersJacques Rancière (born Algiers, 1940) is a French philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris (St. Denis) who came to prominence when he co-authored Reading Capital (1968), with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser.
Rancière contributed to the influential volume Reading "Capital" (though his contribution is not contained in the partial English translation) before publicly breaking with Althusser over his attitude toward the May 1968 student uprising in Paris.
Since then, Rancière has departed from the path set by his teacher and published a series of works probing the concepts that make up our understanding of political discourse. What is ideology? What is the proletariat? Is there a working class? And how do these masses of workers that thinkers like Althusser referred to continuously enter into a relationship with knowledge? We talk about them but what do we know? An example of this line of thinking is Rancière's book entitled Le philosophe et ses pauvres (The Philosopher and His Poor, 1983), a book about the role of the poor in the intellectual lives of philosophers.
Most recently Rancière has written on the topic of human rights and specifically the role of international human rights organizations in asserting the authority to determine which groups of people — again the problem of masses — justify human rights interventions, and even war.
In 2006, it was reported that Rancière's aesthetic theory had become a point of reference in the visual arts, and Rancière has lectured at such art world events as the Freize Art Fair. Former French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has cited Rancière as her favourite philosopher.
Rancière contributed to the influential volume Reading "Capital" (though his contribution is not contained in the partial English translation) before publicly breaking with Althusser over his attitude toward the May 1968 student uprising in Paris.
Since then, Rancière has departed from the path set by his teacher and published a series of works probing the concepts that make up our understanding of political discourse. What is ideology? What is the proletariat? Is there a working class? And how do these masses of workers that thinkers like Althusser referred to continuously enter into a relationship with knowledge? We talk about them but what do we know? An example of this line of thinking is Rancière's book entitled Le philosophe et ses pauvres (The Philosopher and His Poor, 1983), a book about the role of the poor in the intellectual lives of philosophers.
Most recently Rancière has written on the topic of human rights and specifically the role of international human rights organizations in asserting the authority to determine which groups of people — again the problem of masses — justify human rights interventions, and even war.
In 2006, it was reported that Rancière's aesthetic theory had become a point of reference in the visual arts, and Rancière has lectured at such art world events as the Freize Art Fair. Former French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has cited Rancière as her favourite philosopher.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 14, 2024
Tourne en rond, on apprend pas grand chose, 1/3 du livre c’est de la paraphrase (autant lire directement un recueil de nouvelles de Tchekhov) + y a une erreur typographique à la page 70 = ratio
September 10, 2025
Freedom in the rear-view mirror.
Rancière discusses Chekhov's writing on liberty, but the true subject might be progress. The sympathetic reconstruction, or perhaps rather projection of Chekhov's "politics of literature" consists of developing a sensibility that is both aesthetic ánd moral and centres around beauty and suffering. This is above all expressed in the possibility of "another life", possibly most pronounced when it is not taken. Rancière patiently works through various novels and stories by Chekhov, developing Benjaminian themes on time, redemption, revolution and freedom in prose that is both lucid and evocative, as if inspired by the material he discusses. The political and ethical virtue he unearths in Chekhovs writing always seems to be fundamenally one of patience: it refers to a freedom to come, however. Freedom can just about be discerned, in the distance, but the implication is that it's drawing ever nearer, and that the lingering rumble of serfdom will one day truly cease.
This reference to progress made it somewhat strange reading for me, as the current rumblings of serfdom and oppression seem to me to rather be an announcement of a full-throated return, instead of a dissipating echo. It was curious to realise that this is a contemporary work by Rancière, completed as the maelstrom of current events, circling ever closer around the gutter of complete madness, was already in full swing. It left me wondering, does Chekhov's redemption still work if instead of coming closer, our freedom disappears in the distance of the rear-view mirror?
Rancière discusses Chekhov's writing on liberty, but the true subject might be progress. The sympathetic reconstruction, or perhaps rather projection of Chekhov's "politics of literature" consists of developing a sensibility that is both aesthetic ánd moral and centres around beauty and suffering. This is above all expressed in the possibility of "another life", possibly most pronounced when it is not taken. Rancière patiently works through various novels and stories by Chekhov, developing Benjaminian themes on time, redemption, revolution and freedom in prose that is both lucid and evocative, as if inspired by the material he discusses. The political and ethical virtue he unearths in Chekhovs writing always seems to be fundamenally one of patience: it refers to a freedom to come, however. Freedom can just about be discerned, in the distance, but the implication is that it's drawing ever nearer, and that the lingering rumble of serfdom will one day truly cease.
This reference to progress made it somewhat strange reading for me, as the current rumblings of serfdom and oppression seem to me to rather be an announcement of a full-throated return, instead of a dissipating echo. It was curious to realise that this is a contemporary work by Rancière, completed as the maelstrom of current events, circling ever closer around the gutter of complete madness, was already in full swing. It left me wondering, does Chekhov's redemption still work if instead of coming closer, our freedom disappears in the distance of the rear-view mirror?
October 26, 2024
Très bon. À relire car touffu et pas évident quand on a pas Чехов en tête mais il avance des propositions vraiment interessantes et utiles
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews