Brian Stimpson – författare

Robinson Crusoe explores Defoe's story, the legend it captured, the universal desire which underlies the myth and a range of modern re-writings which reveal a continued fascination with the problematic character of this narrative. Whether envisaged as an heroic rejection of the old world order, a piece of pre-colonialist propaganda or a tale raising archetypal problems of 'otherness' and 'inequality', the mythic value of Crusoe has become a pretext over many centuries for an examination of some of the fundamental problems of existence. This collection of essays examines, from a wide range of critical and philosophical perspectives, the cultural manifestations of Robinson Crusoe in different centuries, in different media, in different genres.

This 1984 book was the first to investigate the full implications of Paul Valéry's interest in the relationship between music and poetry. The book is more of a survey of all that Valéry had to say on music; it examines in detail the influence of such music upon his work as a poet. The structure of the book comprises three distinct phases of argument. In the first part Dr Stimpson details Valéry's contacts with the major developments in twentieth-century French music, and reveals particularly close relationshops with a number of outstanding composers and performers. Part II explores Valéry's theoretical consideration of the links between music and poetry. The third section studies the musical techniques in Valéry's poetry - melody, harmonics, rhythm, musique verbale, and recitative. This will be an important book for serious students of Valéry's poetry and all those interested in the relationship between poetry and music.

Paul Valéry's work is a unique odyssey in the universe of ideas and mental forms. The most recently acknowledged - and the most private - of the masters of modernity, Valéry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historicans and social anthropologists, always concerned to explore the potential and limits of the human mind. Originally published in 1999, the present volume of essays by internationally recognised scholars offered the first comprehensive account of Valéry's work in English or French. It provided a series of readings bringing into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valéry called his 'unitary mind in a thousand pieces', and offered perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings. This book moved forward the frontiers of our understanding of Valéry's work, and substantially altered the way in which he was perceived.

Paul Valéry's work is a unique odyssey in the universe of ideas and mental forms. The most recently acknowledged - and the most private - of the masters of modernity, Valéry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historicans and social anthropologists, always concerned to explore the potential and limits of the human mind. Originally published in 1999, the present volume of essays by internationally recognised scholars offered the first comprehensive account of Valéry's work in English or French. It provided a series of readings bringing into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valéry called his 'unitary mind in a thousand pieces', and offered perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings. This book moved forward the frontiers of our understanding of Valéry's work, and substantially altered the way in which he was perceived.

Robinson Crusoe explores Defoe''s story, the legend it captured, the universal desire which underlies the myth and a range of modern re-writings which reveal a continued fascination with the problematic character of this narrative. Whether envisaged as an heroic rejection of the old world order, a piece of pre-colonialist propaganda or a tale raising archetypal problems of ''otherness'' and ''inequality'', the mythic value of Crusoe has become a pretext over many centuries for an examination of some of the fundamental problems of existence. This collection of essays examines, from a wide range of critical and philosophical perspectives, the cultural manifestations of Robinson Crusoe in different centuries, in different media, in different genres.

Robinson Crusoe explores Defoe's story, the legend it captured, the universal desire which underlies the myth and a range of modern re-writings which reveal a continued fascination with the problematic character of this narrative. Whether envisaged as an heroic rejection of the old world order, a piece of pre-colonialist propaganda or a tale raising archetypal problems of 'otherness' and 'inequality', the mythic value of Crusoe has become a pretext over many centuries for an examination of some of the fundamental problems of existence. This collection of essays examines, from a wide range of critical and philosophical perspectives, the cultural manifestations of Robinson Crusoe in different centuries, in different media, in different genres.

The Cahiers/Notebooks of Paul Valéry are a unique form of writing. They reveal Valéry as one of the most radical and creative minds of the twentieth century, encompassing a wide range of investigation into all spheres of human activity. His work explores the arts, the sciences, philosophy, history and politics, investigating linguistic, psychological and social issues, all linked to the central questions, relentlessly posed: ‘what is the human mind and how does it work?’, ‘what is the potential of thought and what are its limits?’But we encounter here too, Valéry the writer: exploratory, fragmentary texts undermine the boundaries between analysis and creativity, between theory and practice. Neither journal nor diary, eluding the traditional genres of writing, the Notebooks offer lyrical passages, writing of extreme beauty, prose poems of extraordinary descriptive power alongside theoretical considerations of poetics, ironic aphorisms and the most abstract kind of analysis. The concerns and the insights that occupied Valéry’s inner voyages over more than 50 years remain as relevant as ever for the contemporary reader: for the Self that is his principal subject is at once singular and universal.