Headline:The first English presentation of key works of the leading French linguist and thinker Henri Meschonnic

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Henri Meschonnic was a linguist, poet, translator of the Bible and one of the most original French thinkers of his generation. He strove throughout his career to reform the understanding of language and all that depends on it. His work has had a shaping influence across the humanities and its importance is growing. Here, for the first time, some of the key texts are made available in English for a new generation of linguists and scholars interested in questions of language. By introducing the key works of Henri Meschonnic, this Reader will enrich, enhance and challenge your understanding of language.

This book includes fourteen key texts which cover the core concepts and topics of Meschonnic's theory. It explores his key ideas on poetics, the poem, rhythm and discourse and his critique of the sign. Meschonnic's vast oeuvre was continuously preoccupied with the question of a poetics of society; he constantly connected the theory of language to its practice in various fields and interrogated what that means for the individual and society. In exploring this fundamental question, the book is central to the study and philosophy of language, with rich repercussions in fields such as translation studies, poetics and literary studies, and in redefining notions such as rhythm, modernity, the poem and the subject.


Key Features:
. The first volume to present a selection of Henri Meschonnic's key texts in English.
. Presents work from Critique du rythme: anthropologie historique du langage; Célébration de la poésie; La Rime et la vie; Un Coup de Bible dans la philosophie; Poétique du traduire; Modernité modernité; and Langage, histoire, une même théorie.
. Includes an introduction to Henry Meschonnic by John E. Joseph.
. Includes an introduction by Marko Pajevic on Meschonnic's theory, concepts and poetics of society.
. Groups texts into 6 thematic parts; each part is foregrounded by an introduction to situate and contextualise these for the reader.
. Includes a glossary of terms, index of names and index of terminology to aid navigation and understanding.
. Includes a bibliography of Meschonnic's published books to aid further study.

Marko Pajevic is Professor of German Studies at the University of Tartu

Introduction, John E. Joseph; Meschonnic's Theory of Rhythm, his Key Concepts and their Relation, Marko Pajevic; Meschonnic's Poetics of Society, Marko Pajevic; Prelimary Remarks to this Reader, Marko Pajevic; Part 1: Critique of Rhythm; Chapter One: Poetics: Theoretical Activity, Poetic Activity; Chapter Two: Rhythm: What is at Stake in a Theory of Rhythm; Chapter Three: Metrics: Pure Metrics or Discourse Metrics; Chapter Four: Sign: Not the Sign, but Rhythm; Part 2: Poetry and Poem; Chapter Five: Rhythm Party Manifesto; Part 3: Rhyme and Life; Chapter Six: Life: Rhyme and Life; Chapter Seven: Orality: Orality, Poetics of the Voice; Chapter Eight: Subject: The subject of writing; Part 4: Translating;Chapter Nine: Translating and Society: Translating, and the Bible, in the Theory of Language and of Society; Chapter Ten: Translating and the Biblical: A Bible Blow to Philosophy; Chapter Eleven: Case study of Poetic Translating: The Name of Ophelia; Part 5: Modernity; Chapter Twelve: Modernity is a battle; Part 6: Historicity and Society; Chapter Thirteen: For a Poetics of Historicity; Chapter Fourteen: Realism, Nominalism: The Theory of Language is a Theory of Society; Annex; Index of Names; Index of Terminology; Glossary; Bibliography of Meschonnic's book publications