9781844672974-frontcover

The Future of the Image

by Jacques Rancière

Translated by Gregory Elliott

A leading philosopher presents a radical manifesto for the future of art and film.

In The Future of the Image, Jacques Rancière develops a fascinating new concept of the image in contemporary art, showing how art and politics have always been intrinsically intertwined. Covering a range of art movements, filmmakers such as Godard and Bresson, and thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Adorno, Barthes, Lyotard and Greenberg, Rancière shows that contemporary theorists of the image are suffering from religious tendencies.

He argues that there is a stark political choice in art: it can either reinforce a radical democracy, or create a new reactionary mysticism. For Rancière there is never a pure art: the aesthetic revolution must always embrace egalitarian ideals.

Paperback, 147 pages

ISBN: 9781844672974

February 2009

$17.95 / £10.99

Reviews

  • “Like all of Jacques Rancière’s texts, The Future of the Image is vertiginously precise.”

    – Les Cahiers du Cinema

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

    – Slavoj Zizek

  • "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

  • "It's clear that Jacques Ranciere is relighting the flame that was extinguished for many--that is why he serves as such a signal reference today."

    – Thomas Hirschhorn

  • "A series of gratifyingly knotty and close discussions of nineteenth and twentieth century literature, film and painting."

    – Guardian

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.

Continue Reading

By Decca Muldowney / 25 January 2012 / post comment

Discussions

Begin a discussion

Other books by Jacques Rancière