On What Cannot Be Said

William Franke is professor of comparative literature and religious studies at Vanderbilt University and past professor of philosophy and religions at the University of Macao (2013–16). He is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and has been Fulbright-University of Salzburg Distinguished Chair in Intercultural Theology and Study of Religions. He is the author of A Philosophy of the Unsayable (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014).

"The second volume, stretching from Holderlin to Jean-Luc Marion, provides readings from sources as diverse as Schelling, Dickinson, Kafka, Wittgenstein, John Cage, and Maurice Blanchot. . . . Franke observes that these modern and contemporary apophatic currents, as ra dical as they truly are, are nevertheless thoroughly indebted to the 'ancient theological matrices' out of which they indirectly (or not so indirectly) spring. . . . I recommend these two volumes as essential reading for philosophers, theologians, literary scholars, intellectual historians, critical theorists—in short, anyone interested in an illuminating and vital perspective on just about any facet of Western arts and letters." —Religion and Literature"The genius of Franke's two-volume critical anthology on apophatic discourses is the work's breadth and depth of engagement with the concept in variously distinct and even conflicting contexts. . . . Franke manages his sweeping and inclusive exploration of apophatic discourses by identifying a thematic lens for selecting his sources as part of a larger, conceptually-rooted genre of discourse. . . . The greatest strength of Franke's two-volume collection resides in the sheer fact that nothing like it exists." —Essays in Philosophy"One of the most important and original contributions to the discussion of apophasis in recent years. . . . Franke's historical and disciplinary range, in light of his well-written and compelling essays, provides an illuminating insight into the pervasiveness of apophatic discourse. . . . Franke's anthology is a resource which should not be ignored. Few others, maybe no others, provide the same clarity, coherence, and scope." —Christianity and Literature