Rumour in Orleans,

Politics & Social Sciences

MORIN, EDGAR

Social Sciences

Blond

Sociology, Current Events, Jewish Studies, Women's Studies, World History

Rumour in Orléans

Pantheon Books

Plodémet: report from a French village;

Allen Lane.

When The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man first appeared in 1956, the movies and the moviegoing experience were generally not regarded as worthy of serious scholarly consideration. Yet, French critic and social theorist Edgar Morin perceived in the cinema a complex phenomenon capable of illuminating fundamental truths about thought, imagination, and human nature - which allowed him to connect the mythic universe of gods and spirits present within the most primitive societies to the hyperreality emanating from the images projected on the screen. Now making its English-language debut, this audacious, provocative work draws on insights from poets, filmmakers, anthropologists, and philosophers to restore to the cinema the sense of magic first enjoyed at the dawn of the medium. Morin's inquiry follows two veins of investigation. The first focuses on the cinematic image as the nexus between the real and the imaginary; the second examines the cinema's re-creation of the archaic universe of doubles and ghosts and its power to possess, to bewitch, to nourish dreams, desires, and aspirations. "We experience the cinema in a state of double consciousness," Morin writes, "an astonishing phenomenon where the illusion of reality is inseparable from the awareness that it is really an illusion."

The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Univ. of Minnesota Press

When The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man first appeared in 1956, the movies and the moviegoing experience were generally not regarded as worthy of serious scholarly consideration. Yet, French critic and social theorist Edgar Morin perceived in the cinema a complex phenomenon capable of illuminating fundamental truths about thought, imagination, and human nature - which allowed him to connect the mythic universe of gods and spirits present within the most primitive societies to the hyperreality emanating from the images projected on the screen. Now making its English-language debut, this audacious, provocative work draws on insights from poets, filmmakers, anthropologists, and philosophers to restore to the cinema the sense of magic first enjoyed at the dawn of the medium. Morin's inquiry follows two veins of investigation. The first focuses on the cinematic image as the nexus between the real and the imaginary; the second examines the cinema's re-creation of the archaic universe of doubles and ghosts and its power to possess, to bewitch, to nourish dreams, desires, and aspirations. "We experience the cinema in a state of double consciousness," Morin writes, "an astonishing phenomenon where the illusion of reality is inseparable from the awareness that it is really an illusion."

The Stars

Worshipped as heroes, treated as gods, movie stars are more than objects of admiration. A star's influence touches on every aspect of ordinary life, dictating taste in fashion, lifestyle, and desire. Edgar Morin's remarkable investigation into the cultural and social significance of the star system traces its evolution from the earliest days of the cinema - when stars like Chaplin, Garbo, and Valentino lived at a distance from their fans, far beyond all mortals, to the postwar era in which stars like Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe became familiar and familial, less unapproachable but more moving, and concludes with an analysis of the furious religious adulation surrounding the life and death of James Dean. Ultimately, Morin finds, stars are more than just creations of the movie studios; they serve as intermediaries between the real and the imaginary. Today, with the cult of fame more pervasive and influential than ever, The Stars remains a vibrant, vital, and surprising work.

Worshipped as heroes, treated as gods, movie stars are more than objects of admiration. A star's influence touches on every aspect of ordinary life, dictating taste in fashion, lifestyle, and desire. Edgar Morin's remarkable investigation into the cultural and social significance of the star system traces its evolution from the earliest days of the cinema - when stars like Chaplin, Garbo, and Valentino lived at a distance from their fans, far beyond all mortals, to the postwar era in which stars like Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe became familiar and familial, less unapproachable but more moving, and concludes with an analysis of the furious religious adulation surrounding the life and death of James Dean. Ultimately, Morin finds, stars are more than just creations of the movie studios; they serve as intermediaries between the real and the imaginary. Today, with the cult of fame more pervasive and influential than ever, The Stars remains a vibrant, vital, and surprising work.

A short, incisive political tract that criticizes the culture of finance capitalism and calls for a return to the humanist values of the enlightenment: equality, liberty, freedom as defined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a return to community, mutual respect, freedom from poverty, and an end to theocracy and fundamentalism. The authors argue that a return to these values constitutes “a path to hope,” leading the way out of the present worldwide malaise brought on by economic collapse, moral failure, and an ignorance of history. For the authors, 20th-century fascism was no mere abstraction—it was a brutal system brought on by a similar malaise, a system they fought against. This gives their book special urgency. The Path to Hope is written by two esteemed French thinkers—94-year-old Stephane Hessel and 90-year-old Edgar Morin, following on the heels of Hessel’s Indignez-vous! (Time for Outrage!). Both books have become bestsellers in France and throughout Europe. Both have also become foundational documents underpinning the worldwide protest movement of which Occupy Wall Street is the American subset.

The Path to Hope

Business & Money

HESSEL, Stéphane

Economics

Other Press

Edgar Morin, one of France's greatest living intellectuals, tells the story of his father, Vidal Nahoum, but also the story of Sephardic Jews, and of Europe. In this "holographic history," Vidal's story, and that of his family, carries within it the flowering, decline, and death of Jewish culture in Spain; the passage from Empires to Nation States; the complex relations between Jews and Gentiles, between East and West; and, ultimately, the history of the 20th century itself. Morin's work ranges from the great sweep of global historical events to the everyday details of individual lives, letters, feelings, reflections, and experiences. Vidal was born in 1894 in the Ottoman Empire's great Macedonian port. His great-grandfather came from Tuscany and spoke Italian. His mother tongue was 15th-century Spanish. He learned French and German as a child. When he was an adolescent, he dreamed of living in France. He was deported there as a prisoner, and then liberated by the French Prime Minister. He lived through the Balkan wars, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and both World Wars. Vidal cannot be isolated from his family. And as Edgar Morin explains, "this book also tells the stories of the men and women in his immediate family.... When, as his son, I inevitably come into his story.... I describe him as objectively as possible. The reverence that inspired me did not call for a work of edification; it implied that I should attempt to write a truthful book. For this reason, the book is not in the least respectful, or at least not in the usual sense of the word. Vidal felt that loving someone meant being able to tease him. The author of these lines, who has inherited something of this trait, does not think it disrespectful to tease or make fun of the people he loves."

Vidal and His Family: From Salonica to Paris - The Story of a Sephardic Family in the Twentieth Century

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Liverpool University Press

Introduction a une politique de l'homme

SEUIL

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Books by MORIN, EDGAR

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MORIN, EDGAR. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rumour in Orleans,

Rumour in Orléans

Plodémet: report from a French village;

The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man

The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man

The Stars

The Stars

The Path to Hope

Vidal and His Family: From Salonica to Paris - The Story of a Sephardic Family in the Twentieth Century

Introduction a une politique de l'homme