Understanding Merleau-Ponty, Understanding Modernism

Ariane Mildenberg is Senior Lecturer in Modernism at the University of Kent, UK. She is the author of Modernism and Phenomenology: Literature, Philosophy, Art (2017) and co-editor of Phenomenology, Modernism and Beyond (2010).

The encounter between Merleau-Ponty and modernism is given added acuity moreover by the fairly recent phenomenological turn in critical theory and the return to Merleau-Ponty’s work across a number of fields and tendencies, including queer phenomenology, medical humanities, animal studies, environmental studies, and new materialism. The many contributors to Mildenberg’s carefully curated and substantial volume (with nineteen individually authored chapters in all) offer provocative and significant contributions to these ongoing conversations. ... In addition to the many substantial and precise perspectives to be found in the first two parts of the volume, the third part offers a distinctively adventurous series of brief glossary entries, each of them nevertheless essays in their own right. ... a significant and substantial resource for scholars working on Merleau-Ponty and phenomenology, but beyond this it has much to offer to the ongoing re-assessment of modernism and its legacies.

• Notes on ContributorsSeries PrefacePaul Ardoin, S. E. Gontarski, and Laci MattisonList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: "The Surface of a Depth"Ariane Mildenberg (University of Kent, UK)Part I. Conceptualizing Merleau-Ponty 1. Merleau-Ponty’s CogitoThomas Baldwin (University of York, UK)2. On “The Philosopher and His Shadow”Kevin Hart (University of Virginia, USA)3. A Reading of "In Praise of Philosophy": How Bergson Conceived Our Relation to the TruthMichael R. Kelly (University of San Diego, USA)4. “Hooks” and “Anchors”: Cézanne, the Lived Perspective and Modernist DoubtAriane Mildenberg (University of Kent, UK)5. The Artist's Gestures of Fascination in “Eye and Mind”Glen Mazis (Penn State Harrisburg, USA)6. “I Must be Surprised, Disoriented”: Merleau-Ponty on Language as Disruptive MovementFlorentien Verhage (Washington and Lee University, USA)7. Neither/Nor: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology in “The Intertwining/The Chiasm”Jack Reynolds (La Trobe University, Australia) & Jon Roffe (University of Melbourne, Australia)Part II. Merleau-Ponty, Aesthetics, and the Lived Body8. Phenomenology and the Imagination of ModernismJennifer Gosetti-Ferencei (Fordham University, USA)9. The “Systems of Equivalences” in Matisse and Klee: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology of Modern Painting in “Eye and Mind”Rajiv Kaushik (Brock University, Canada)10. Merleau-Ponty on Simultaneity and Succession: The Turn to Music through Proust and ClaudelJessica Wiskus (Duquesne University, USA)11. Merleau-Ponty and Film: Documenting the ImaginationSarah Cooper (King’s College, University of London, UK)12. Motricité, Physiology, and Modernity in Phenomenology of PerceptionMark Paterson (University of Pittsburgh, USA)13. D. H. Lawrence, Merleau-Ponty and the Phenomenology of IllnessUlrika Maude (University of Bristol, UK)14. “Mirrors of Reciprocal Flesh”: James Joyce and Maurice Merleau-PontyCleo Hanaway-Oakley (Oxford University, UK) 15. Environmental Modernisms: Representing the Flesh of the World in Modernist LiteratureKelly Sultzbach (University of Wisconsin, USA)16. Uncertain Humanisms: Energies of Environment in Bowen, Beckett and Merleau-PontyAmanda Dennis (Columbia University, USA)17. Rhythmic Looking: Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetry of PerceptionJason M. Baskin (University of Exeter, UK)18. Poetico-Phenomenological Intertwinings: The Elaboration of a Practice of Thought in Valéry and Merleau-PontyCarole Bourne-Taylor (Brasenose College, Oxford, UK)19. A Big Serious Portrait of My Time: Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Temporality and the Modernist Long PoemMatthew Carbery (University of Kent, UK)Part III. Glossary 20. Body-subjectAnn V. Murphy (University of New Mexico, USA)21. FleshAnn V. Murphy (University of New Mexico, USA)22. ÉcartRajiv Kaushik (Brock University, Canada)23. Wild (Brute) BeingDavid Warren Grunner (Fordham University, USA)24. Chiasm/IntertwiningDavid Warren Grunner (Fordham University, USA)25. Body SchemaJonathan Hale (University of Nottingham, UK)26. Perceptual FaithJames Bodington (University of New Mexico, USA)27. Lived ExperienceFlorentien Verhage (Washington and Lee University, USA)28. Inter-world/l’intermondePatricia Locke (St. John's College, USA)29. IneinanderJessica Wiskus (Duquesne University, USA)30. DepthGlen Mazis (Penn State Harrisburg, USA)31. Motor IntentionalityMark Paterson (University of Pittsburgh, USA)32. Speaking Speech and Spoken SpeechHayden Kee (Fordham University, USA)Index