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The sociological imagination and the artistic imagination have been historically intertwined, at once reciprocal and conflicting, complementary and tensional. This connection is nowhere more apparent than in the work of Zygmunt Bauman. His conception and practice of sociology were always infused with a literary and artistic sensibility. He wrote extensively on the relationship between sociology and the arts, and especially on sociology and literature; he frequently drew on literary writers in his exploration and elucidation of sociological problems; and he was an avid and passionate consumer and practitioner of art, especially film and photography.
This volume brings together hitherto unknown or rare pieces by Bauman on the themes of culture and art, including previously unpublished material from the Bauman Archive at the University of Leeds. A substantial introduction by the editors provides readers with a lucid guide through this material and develops connections to Bauman's other works.
The first volume in a series of books that will make available the lesser-known writings of one of the most influential social thinkers of our time, Culture and Art will be of interest to students and scholars across the arts, humanities and social sciences, and to a wider readership.
List of contents
Series Introduction
Translator's Note
Introduction
1. Culture and Society: Semantic and Genetic Connections (1966)
2. Notes Beyond Time (1967)
3. Marx and the Contemporary Theory of Culture (1968)
4. Culture, Values and Science of Society (1972)
5. Jorge Louis Borges, or Why Understanding is Not What it Seems to Be (1976)
6. Thinking Photographically (1983-1985)
7. Einstein Meets Magritte: Postmodernity is Born (1995)
8. Assimilation into Exile: The Jew as a Polish Writer (1996)
9. Beyond the Borders of Interpretative Anarchism (1997)
10. On Art, Death and Postmodernity - And What They Do To Each Other (1998)
11. Actors and Spectators (2004)
12. Listening to the Past, Talking to the Past...(2008)
13. The Spectre of Barbarism - Then and Now (2008)
14. A Few (Erratic) Thoughts on the Morganatic Liaison of Theory and Literature (2010)
15. On Love and Hate... In the Footsteps of Barbara Skarga (2015)
Notes
Acknowledgements Index
About the author
Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Leeds.
Summary
The sociological imagination and the artistic imagination have been historically intertwined, at once reciprocal and conflicting, complementary and tensional. This connection is nowhere more apparent than in the work of Zygmunt Bauman. His conception and practice of sociology were always infused with a literary and artistic sensibility. He wrote extensively on the relationship between sociology and the arts, and especially on sociology and literature; he frequently drew on literary writers in his exploration and elucidation of sociological problems; and he was an avid and passionate consumer and practitioner of art, especially film and photography.
This volume brings together hitherto unknown or rare pieces by Bauman on the themes of culture and art, including previously unpublished material from the Bauman Archive at the University of Leeds. A substantial introduction by the editors provides readers with a lucid guide through this material and develops connections to Bauman's other works.
The first volume in a series of books that will make available the lesser-known writings of one of the most influential social thinkers of our time, Culture and Art will be of interest to students and scholars across the arts, humanities and social sciences, and to a wider readership.
Report
'Zygmunt Bauman's work on culture and art is important in aiding our understanding of the origins of his best-known ideas, as well as in offering a plethora of new ones. They all have great implications for understanding the social world.'
George Ritzer, University of Maryland
'A set of beguiling essays. Bauman's ideas remain fresh and remarkably stimulating. He teases out the cultural contradictions of the late modern age with extraordinary delicacy.'
Anthony Elliott, University of South Australia
'This is fascinating reading.'
Thesis Eleven
'A remarkable tool for understanding the nuances of an extensive and nuanced corpus of writings.'
Theory, Culture and Society
