{"product_id":"infancy-and-history-on-the-destruction-of-experience-9781844675715","title":"Infancy and History: On the Destruction of Experience","description":"How and why did experience and knowledge become separated? Is it possible to talk of an infancy of experience, a \"dumb\" experience? For Walter Benjamin, the \"poverty of experience\" was a characteristic of modernity, originating in the catastrophe of the First World War. For Giorgio Agamben, the Italian editor of Benjamin's complete works, the destruction of experience no longer needs catastrophes: daily life in any modern city will suffice. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAgamben's profound and radical exploration of language, infancy, and everyday life traces concepts of experience through Kant, Hegel, Husserl and Benveniste. In doing so he elaborates a theory of infancy that throws new light on a number of major themes in contemporary thought: the anthropological opposition between nature and culture; the linguistic opposition between speech and language; the birth of the subject and the appearance of the unconscious. Agamben goes on to consider time and history; the Marxist notion of base and superstructure (via a careful reading of the famous Adorno-Benjamin correspondence on Baudelaire's Paris); and the difference between rituals and games. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeautifully written, erudite and provocative, these essays will be of great interest to students of philosophy, linguistics, anthropology and politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGiorgio Agamben\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Venice. His works include \u003ci\u003eThe Coming Community\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHomo Sacer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eState of Exception\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50922246603026,"sku":"9781844675715","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7bb78631-810d-4b84-9dd4-70a39266c481.jpg?v=1738926450","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/infancy-and-history-on-the-destruction-of-experience-9781844675715","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}