Reading Paul Valéry
Universe in Mind

Originally published in 1999, this was the first comprehensive account of the work of the French modernist writer Paul Valéry.

Paul Gifford (Edited by), Brian Stimpson (Edited by)

9780521584944, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 January 1999

334 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.6 kg

Paul Valéry's work is a unique odyssey in the universe of ideas and mental forms. The most recently acknowledged - and the most private - of the masters of modernity, Valéry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historicans and social anthropologists, always concerned to explore the potential and limits of the human mind. Originally published in 1999, the present volume of essays by internationally recognised scholars offered the first comprehensive account of Valéry's work in English or French. It provided a series of readings bringing into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valéry called his 'unitary mind in a thousand pieces', and offered perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings. This book moved forward the frontiers of our understanding of Valéry's work, and substantially altered the way in which he was perceived.

Introduction
Part I. Self-Science: 1. Towards a biography of the mind Ned Bastet
2. Thinking-writing games of the Cahiers Paul Gifford
3. Paradigms of the self: Valéry's mythical models Robert Pickering
4. The fascination of science Judith Robinson-Valéry
5. An art of rethinking: Valéry's 'negative philosophy' Régine Pietra
Part II. Self-Writings: 6. The poetics of practice and theory M. Jarrety
7. 'Esprit, Attente, pur, éternel suspens … ' Valéry's prose poetry Stephen Romer
8. The Dialogues and Mon Faust: Valéry's republic of the mind William Marx
9. Counter-fiction Brian Stimpson
10. Major poems: the voice of the subject J.-M. Maulpoix
11. Other voices: intertextuality and the art of pure poetry Suzanne Nash
12. Manuscript steps: 'Les Pas' Florence de Lussy
Part III. Body, Mind, World: 13. An aesthetics of the subject: music and the visual arts Brian Stimpson
14. Politics, history and the modern world Nicole Celeyrette-Pietri
15. Valéry and the feminine Kirsteen Anderson
16. Dream and the unconscious Malcolm Bowie
17. Self and other: Valéry's 'lost object of desire' Paul Gifford
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]