BLANK SPACE [ " " ]

by Mikhail Epstein

MIKHAIL EPSTEIN " ". This small book is about blank spaces in language and culture and their formative role in major artistic movements of the 20th century. The book proposes new sign that denotes the absence of any sign and is conveyed by quotation marks around a blank Ò Ó. This no-sign can be applied to many subject areas, including philosophy, theology, ethics, aesthetics, poetics, and linguistics. Ò Ó signifies, more adequately than any of these terms, the Absolute, Dao, the Endless, the Inexpressible, DiffŽrance, i.e., the ultimate condition of any signification. Each discipline has its own Ò Ó, certain ÒunspeakableÓ assumptions that need to be presented inside disciplinary frontiers, as a blank margin moved inside the medium. Ò Ó allows language to speak the unspeakable. The book presents Ò Ó not only theoretically, but also graphically, in its format and design.

59 pages, Paperback

Published June 27, 2011