This Is Not a Pipe
Douban
(Quantum Books Series)
Ceci n'est pas une pipe
Michel Foucault translator: James Harkness
overview
What does it mean to write "This is not a pipe" across a bluntly literal painting of a pipe? René Magritte's famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a more playful stance. By exploring the nuances and ambiguities of Magritte's visual critique of language, he finds the painter less removed than previously thought from the pioneers of modern abstraction.
contents
List of Plates vii
Acknowledgments ix
Translator's Introduction 1
Two Pipes 15
The Unraveled Calligram 19
Klee, Kandinsky, Magritte 32
Burrowing Words 36
Seven Seals of Affirmation 43
Nonaffirmative Painting 53
Two Letters by Rene Magritte 55
Notes 59
Index 65
Plates 66
