The Claims of Literature

"The time is ripe for critical theory's re-encounter with Shoshana Felman's singularly creative thinking and reading. Felman's insistence on the implications of theory for literary and cultural reading over its mere "applications" remains a fundamental imperative that continues to press us today to rethink our assumptions and practices. This splendid collection brings together much of her most important work, as well as illuminating responses by Judith Butler, Stanley Cavell, and Julia Kristeva, among others." -- -Kenneth Reinhard University of California, Los Angeles "Shoshana Felman ranks as one of the most important and most influential thinkers of recent times. The essays selected for the reader are all widely viewed as "classics" and represent a coherent, well-chosen and thoughtful selection. All bear witness to the clarity of Felman's prose and her dedication to rigorous demonstration and lucid argumentation. Indeed, Felman's work derives its pathbreaking insights though its dedication to the clear expression of ideas and experiences that challenge the human capacity for clear expression. By engaging with this essential human paradox (the need to communicate that which defies communication), Felman's work addresses the most important questions of human experience and encourages her readers to open themselves up to new and exciting ways of thinking and reading." -- -Elissa Marder Emory University "The Claims of Literature gathers some of the true "specimen" texts of the last three decades, texts from which proceeded several of the major theoretical breakthroughs of our era. That each essay retains its full power to re-excite thought is testament to Felman's spectacular ability to locate those moments when an argument begins to fend or feed off its own foreignness. To read-or reread-these brilliant essays is to experience that thrilling brush with the unknown that first led Felman to reconceive the relations between writing and madness; the body and speech; femininity and sexual difference; law and justice; trauma and witnessing." -- -Joan Copjec author of Imagine There's No Woman or Director of the Center for the study of Psychoanalysis and Culture at University at Buffalo