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The Matter of Language: Abstraction and Poetry
A critical intervention on the relationship between language and matter.
If the twentieth century was the century in which language was at the center of thought, the twenty-first century has, so far, been the century of matter. The Matter of Language is a critical intervention that aims to return to the relationship between language and matter to think of our present moment as one dominated by abstractions that rule our lives. In a series of dated chapters, that form punctual moments of intervention, this book both rehabilitates key thinkers, like Marx, Freud, and Saussure, and engages with poetic thinking on matter in David Jones, Diane di Prima, William Blake, Leslie Kaplan, and others. It is a matter of understanding language as a site of struggle, which is intimately bound to the material but also crucial in formulating and expressing the material and the abstractions that shape language and matter. Working between theory and poetry, The Matter of Language reconceives notions of alienation and class struggle as essential modes of reading and analysis for our fractured present.
If the twentieth century was the century in which language was at the center of thought, the twenty-first century has, so far, been the century of matter. The Matter of Language is a critical intervention that aims to return to the relationship between language and matter to think of our present moment as one dominated by abstractions that rule our lives. In a series of dated chapters, that form punctual moments of intervention, this book both rehabilitates key thinkers, like Marx, Freud, and Saussure, and engages with poetic thinking on matter in David Jones, Diane di Prima, William Blake, Leslie Kaplan, and others. It is a matter of understanding language as a site of struggle, which is intimately bound to the material but also crucial in formulating and expressing the material and the abstractions that shape language and matter. Working between theory and poetry, The Matter of Language reconceives notions of alienation and class struggle as essential modes of reading and analysis for our fractured present.
272 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2023
There's a lot about this book which is picking at old scabs but that's by no means a criticism - there's a lot of stuff here which hasn't really stopped bleeding. Noys' work here is often re-visiting historical moments to view them in a contemporary light. In a sense, it's a work of tasteful hermeneutics; in another sense it's a series of provocations, or re-opening of old cases. For instance - where critical history has typically considered the Saussure sign/signifier discourse to be a matter of historical passing, Noys here revisits it, re-opens the scab, with a view to obviating the means in which abstraction (in language) can be reckoned with abstraction (in capital) - that is, to articulate the ways in which theories of language are the mirrors of capital relations (especially with regards abstraction) and to encourage a sort of re-investment - if not in the politicisation of the theories of signification then at least in that possibility.
Noys' breadth is impressive - plenty of what you might call 'usual suspects' popping their head up (Derrida, Nietzsche, Saussure) but plenty of work to elevate less-canonical figures in 20th- and 21st-century writing - David Jones, Diane di Prima, Verity Spott.
His writing on di Prima articulates a lot of problems I've had with her writing - citing the revolutionary as atavistic. I think my interpretation is contrary to Noys' articulation but perhaps the generosity of his writing is in that he never articulates (eg) di Prima qualitatively, but rather in terms of her relationship to revolution and the perspective she occupied.
Ultimately despite a sense of negativity to the book (perhaps this is just me remembering 'persistence of the negative') there's cause for collectivism and positivity here - the senses in which language occupies concrete and abstract positions and has capacity for damage beyond its stupefaction in the face of capital.
I'm kind of keen to keep details to a minimum - I'm conscious that this isn't a well-reviewed book at the time of writing [late '23] and I'd rather people interested in a discussion around the capacity of language to damage read the book. But definitely to say this is a composite and clearly-written, important contribution to the often fanciful and disconnective abstractions of linguistic philosophy in the 21st century.
Noys' breadth is impressive - plenty of what you might call 'usual suspects' popping their head up (Derrida, Nietzsche, Saussure) but plenty of work to elevate less-canonical figures in 20th- and 21st-century writing - David Jones, Diane di Prima, Verity Spott.
His writing on di Prima articulates a lot of problems I've had with her writing - citing the revolutionary as atavistic. I think my interpretation is contrary to Noys' articulation but perhaps the generosity of his writing is in that he never articulates (eg) di Prima qualitatively, but rather in terms of her relationship to revolution and the perspective she occupied.
Ultimately despite a sense of negativity to the book (perhaps this is just me remembering 'persistence of the negative') there's cause for collectivism and positivity here - the senses in which language occupies concrete and abstract positions and has capacity for damage beyond its stupefaction in the face of capital.
I'm kind of keen to keep details to a minimum - I'm conscious that this isn't a well-reviewed book at the time of writing [late '23] and I'd rather people interested in a discussion around the capacity of language to damage read the book. But definitely to say this is a composite and clearly-written, important contribution to the often fanciful and disconnective abstractions of linguistic philosophy in the 21st century.
August 10, 2024
i enjoyed parts of this. noys appears not to have heard of the southern hemisphere, nor have thought postcolonial theory is relevant to the 'matter of language'. quoting wack bits of di prima's revolutionary letters very cringey in the midst of european philosophers. the main plus was the newer critical books he pointed me to. if anyone reads this who is interested in factory literature: try david ireland's the unknown industrial prisoner
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews