9781844677610-the-emancipated-spectator-pb

The Emancipated Spectator

by Jacques Rancière

Translated by Gregory Elliott

The foremost philosopher of art argues for a new politics of looking.
The theorists of art and film commonly depict the modern audience as aesthetically and politically passive. In response, both artists and thinkers have sought to transform the spectator into an active agent and the spectacle into a communal performance.

In this follow-up to the acclaimed The Future of the Image, Rancière takes a radically different approach to this attempted emancipation. First asking exactly what we mean by political art or the politics of art, he goes on to look at what the tradition of critical art, and the desire to insert art into life, has achieved. Has the militant critique of the consumption of images and commodities become, ironically, a sad affirmation of its omnipotence?

Paperback, 134 pages

ISBN: 9781844677610

October 2011

$16.95 / £9.99 / $21.00CAN

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Reviews

  • In this follow-up to his fruitful The Future of the Image, French philosopher Rancière argues forcefully against familiar critiques of the "spectacle" ... This persuasive argument is fleshed out through close readings of art, ­photography, literature and video installation, and a drily amusing analysis of leftwing "melancholy" and "rightwing frenzy" in critiques of ­capitalism.

    – Steven Poole, Guardian

  • What we see here is Ranciere developing a unique voice as a political theorist.

    – Bookforum

  • French philosopher Jacques Ranciere is a refreshing read for anyone concerned with what art has to do with politics and society.

    – Art Review

  • Ranciere's writings offer one of the few conceptualizations of how we are to continue to resist.

    – Slavoj Zizek

  • The Emancipated Spectator is intended to improve our comprehension of art and deepen our grasp of the politics of perception ... [it has an] impressive concern with the political analysis of art and the use of imagery

    – Times Higher Education

  • What we are given is, above all, a figure of the spectator whose capacities to sense and think are greater than we have been prepared to conceive.

    – Radical Philosophy

  • His art lies in the rigor of his argument—its careful, precise unfolding —and at the same time not treating his reader, whether university professor or unemployed actress, as an imbecile.

    – Kristin Ross

  • In the face of impossible attempts to proceed with progressive ideas within the terms of postmodernist discourse, Rancière shows a way out of the malaise.

    – Liam Gillick

  • It’s clear that Jacques Rancière is relighting the flame that was extinguished for many—that is why he serves as such a signal reference today.

    – Thomas Hirschhorn

Blog

Jacques Rancière postpones visit to Israel following an appeal from Palestinian boycott movement

French political philosopher and leading intellectual Jacques Rancière has postponed a visit to Israel, where he was due to speak at Tel Aviv University, after receiving an open letter from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

PACBI, in a letter published online, wrote to Rancière urging him "in the strongest terms" to cancel his visit to the university which they claim "is complicit in maintaining a regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid." The letter went on to explain that Rancière's decision to ignore the letter would "violate the Palestinian call for boycott," and, "constitute a blunt rejection of the appeal from over 170 civil society organisations that comprise the Palestinian BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement."

Rancière was invited to Tel Aviv by, among others, Ariella Azoulay director of the Photo Lexic Research Group at the Minerva Humanities Center. In response to the letter from the PACBI, Rancière, who was due to give a lecture on 25 January, explained why he initially agreed to speak in Israel,

I accepted the invitation to contribute to the debate on the image, of a research group whose work on photography is closely related to the exposure of violations of the rights of the Palestinian people since the birth of the State of Israel.

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By Decca Muldowney / 25 January 2012 / post comment

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