Bøger af Tzvetan Todorov

In Symbolism and Interpretation, Tzvetan Todorov examines two aspects of discourse: its production, which has traditionally been the domain of rhetoric, and its reception, which has always been the object of hermeneutics. He analyzes the diverse theories of symbolism and interpretation that have been elaborated over the centuries and considers their contribution to a general theory of verbal symbolism, discussing a wide range of thinkers, from the Sanskrit philosophers and Aristotle to the German Romantics and contemporary semioticians.Todorov begins by examining general ideas of linguistic symbolism and the interpretive process. He then turns to a detailed consideration of two of the most influential and pervasive interpretative strategies in Western thought: the patristic exegesis of Augustine and Aquinas, and the philological exegesis foreshadowed in the work of Spinoza, developed by Wolf, Ast, Boeckh, and Lanson, and criticized by Schleiermacher. Todorov clarifies in masterly fashion the intricacies of the many schools of thought and refines the concepts crucial to critical theory today, including the distinctions between language and discourse, direct and indirect meaning, sign and symbol. Ably translated by Catherine Porter, Symbolism and Interpretation provides a coherent and innovative framework that is indispensable to the study of semiotics, its history, and its future.

The Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet gulag provide the context for this acclaimed examination of the human capacity for moral life. Drawing on a striking array of documents, Tzvetan Todorov reconstructs a vivid portrait of the conduct of those who ran the camps and those who suffered their outrages. Challenging the widespread view that moral life was extinguished in the extreme circumstances of the camps, he uncovers instead a rich moral universe, composed not of grand acts of heroism but of ordinary gestures of dignity and care, compassion and solidarity.A complex and profound study, Facing the Extreme restores a lost dimension to this anguished history, even as it offers an eloquent plea for the recognition of everyday virtues as a basis for contemporary morality.

The Conquest of America is a fascinating study of cultural confrontation in the New World, with implications far beyond sixteenth-century America. The book offers an original interpretation of the Spaniards' conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Through the seventeenth century solitude was considered the human condition in the Western philosophical tradition. The self was not dependent on others to perceive itself as complete. This book features reflections on the debates on the concept of otherness and self, interdependence and solitude.

Drawing on history, anthropology, and politics, and bringing to bear examples ranging from the murder of Theo van Gogh to the French ban on headscarves, this book argues that the West must overcome its fear of Islam if it is to avoid betraying the values it claims to protect.

Available in English for the first time, Imperfect Garden is both an approachable intellectual history and a bracing treatise on how we should understand and experience our lives. In it, one of France's most prominent intellectuals explores the foundations, limits, and possibilities of humanist thinking. Through his critical but sympathetic excavation of humanism, Tzvetan Todorov seeks an answer to modernity's fundamental challenge: how to maintain our hard-won liberty without paying too dearly in social ties, common values, and a coherent and responsible sense of self. Todorov reads afresh the works of major humanists--primarily Montaigne, Rousseau, and Constant, but also Descartes, Montesquieu, and Toqueville. Each chapter considers humanism's approach to one major theme of human existence: liberty, social life, love, self, morality, and expression. Discussing humanism in dialogue with other systems, Todorov finds a response to the predicament of modernity that is far more instructive than any offered by conservatism, scientific determinism, existential individualism, or humanism's other contemporary competitors. Humanism suggests that we are members of an intelligent and sociable species who can act according to our will while connecting the well-being of other members with our own. It is through this understanding of free will, Todorov argues, that we can use humanism to rescue universality and reconcile human liberty with solidarity and personal integrity. Placing the history of ideas at the service of a quest for moral and political wisdom, Todorov's compelling and no doubt controversial rethinking of humanist ideas testifies to the enduring capacity of those ideas to meditate on--and, if we are fortunate, cultivate--the imperfect garden in which we live.

Focusing on theories of verbal symbolism, Tzvetan Todorov here presents a history of semiotics.

In Symbolism and Interpretation, Tzvetan Todorov examines two aspects of discourse: its production, which has traditionally been the domain of rhetoric, and its reception, which has always been the object of hermeneutics.

This is a collection of testimonies from inmates, guards, commandants and bureaucrats whose lives were connected with one of the most brutal concentration camps in Communist Eastern Europe - the Gulag.

Rousseau is often said to have "discovered and invented our modernity", and the author's interpretation centres on the question of what sort of life we can live in modern times.

Examines the struggle between Totalitarianism and democracy and its effects on human life and consciousness. This book explores the history of the twentieth century not only by analyzing its spectacular political conflicts but also by offering profiles of several individuals who resisted the strictures of the communist and Nazi regimes.

From the author of "On Human Diversity", "Introduction to Poetics" and "Mikhail Bakhtin", this study examines the complex relationship between "ethics" and "history".

This is a collection in translation of recent essays by Tzvelan Todorov, one of the most eminent of today's literary critics. Todorov proposes definitions for the notions of literature, discourse and genre, discusses the two principal literary genres, fiction and poetry, and examines individual authors as case studies.

A landmark new account of the twentieth century from one of Europe's most outstanding thinkers.

Oversat af Lars Bonnevie.Denne lille perle af en bog fra den internationalt anerkendte filosof, lingvist og litteraturforsker Tzvetan Todorov fastsætter Oplysningstiden som den filosofiske hjørnesten i den moderne verden og hævder, at Oplysningens visdom er lige så relevant for os i dag, som den var i 17700-tallet. Selv om vores liberale demokratier er afkom af Oplysningstiden, illustrerer også de, hvordan dens ideer kan fordrejes og pervertereres. Mennesker, der lever i nutidens demokratier, er ofte usikre over en række rænomener, som de ikke ved, hvordan de skal vurdere: globalisering og mediernes almagt, økonomiens dominans og teknologiens triumf, statssponsoreret tortur, løgne, moralisme og retten til at intervenere."DET ER VED AT KRITISERE OPLYSNINGSTIDEN, AT VI FORBLIVER TROFASTE OVER FOR DEN", SKRIVER TODOROV.Tzetan Todorov, f. 1939, er bulgarskfødt fransk litteraturforsker, kendt over hele verden som et afgørende bindeled mellem russiks foramlisme og fransk strukturalisme. Blandt de tidligste værker om fortællestrukturer og litterære genrer er hans mest kendte Introduction à la littérature fantastique, 1970 (Den fantastiske litteratur, 1989). Forfatterskabet omfatter også bredt anlagte udgivelser om kolonialisme, nationalisme og race samt et essay om, hvordan det liberale demokratis udenrigspolitik bør se ud i en moderne verden: New world disorder: reflections of a european, 2005.Nærværende oversættelse af L'Esprit des Lumieres (Til forsvar for oplysningen) er udkommet på mere end 10 forskellige sprog.

Tzvetan Todorov afstikker i denne banebrydende bog grænserne for en genre: Fantastikken placeres i et grænseområde mellem to tilstødende genrer, og et centralt element i bestemmelsen er læserens reaktion på fortællingens fantastiske hændelser.Ifølge Todorov forudsætter det fantastiske, at et rationelt verdensbillede forefindes, så læseren, konfronteret med det tilsyneladende overnaturliges indgriben, må undres - og dermed bringes til en tøven. Hvad er der her på færde? Er der en mulig naturlig forklaring? Eller må det anerkendes, at naturlovene kan sættes ud af kraft?Den gådefulde uro og tvivl, som forekomsten af det uforklarlige vækker hos aktørerne - i teksten såvel som hos læseren - er konstitutiv for genren. Det er essentielt, at denne vaklen mellem modstridende forklaringsmodi opretholdes, for vælges den ene eller den anden, forlades også den fantastiske genre. Med afgørelsen bestemmes tekstens genremæssige tilhørsforhold.Bogen anses for at være hovedværket inden for studiet af den fantastiske litteratur. Todorovs teori står ikke uanfægtet, men siden bogen udkom i 1970, har stort set enhver, der har forsket inden for feltet, relateret sig til Todorovs bestemmelser som et inspirerende udgangspunkt for teoretisk videreudvikling.