Manyebook

The Number and the Siren: A Decipherment of Mallarmé's Coup de Dés

A philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarm�'s poem "Un Coup de D�s."A meticulous literary study, a detective story � la Edgar Allan Poe, a treasure-hunt worthy of an adventure novel — such is the register in which can be deciphered the hidden secrets of a poem like no other. Quentin Meillassoux, author of After Finitude, continues his philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, infinity, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarm�'s poem "Un Coup de D�s," patiently deciphering its enigmatic meaning on the basis of a dazzlingly simple and lucid insight with regard to Mallarm�'s "unique Number."

The decisive point of the investigation proposed by Meillassoux comes with a discovery, unsettling and yet as simple as a child's game. The Number that "can be no other" can only be revealed to us via a secret code, hidden in the "Coup de d�s" like a key that finally unlocks every one of its poetic devices. Thus is also unveiled the meaning of that siren, emerging for a lightning-flash amongst the debris of the shipwreck: as the living heart of a drama that is still unfolding.

With this bold new interpretation of Mallarm�'s work, Meillassoux offers brilliant insights into modernity, poetics, secularism, and religion, and opens a new chapter in his philosophy of radical contingency.

The volume contains the entire text of the "Coup de d�s" and three other poems, with new English translations.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 306
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780983216926
  • Genres
  • philosophy, poetry, theory, france
  • Release date
  • 2012