Modern French Visual Theory: A Critical Reader

When French theory went global in the late twentieth century its visual wing was understandably built on the work of its best-known thinkers, notably Foucault, Derrida, Barthes and Deleuze. However these names merely scratch the surface of a vibrant and innovative body of theory that has been produced in France over the last six decades. This volume focuses on a range of theorists who usually languish under the academic radar, especially when outside of France: Arasse, Buci-Glucksmann, Damisch, Debray, Didi-Huberman, Heinich, Marin, Schefer and Stiegler. Also discussed is the important work on the visual of Baudrillard, Merleau-Ponty, Metz and Nancy.

Five major areas of French contemporary visual theory are studied by international scholars working within Visual Culture and Art History: phenomenology and beyond; new art histories and genealogies; semiotics and methodologies; memory and the body; and the digital era. – .