Avital Ronell
Encyclopedia
Avital Ronell is a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School
in Saas-Fee
and a Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University
, where she co-directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project. Avital Ronell has written as a literary critic, a feminist
, and philosopher.
to Israel
i diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She graduated from Rutgers Preparatory School
in 1971. She gained a B.A.
from Middlebury College
and studied with Jacob Taubes
at the Hermeneutic Institute at the Free University of Berlin
. She received her Ph.D. in German under the advisement of Stanley Corngold at Princeton University
in 1979, alongside her close friend and philosopher Laurence Rickels, and then continued her studies with Jacques Derrida
and Hélène Cixous
in Paris. She was a very close friend of the controversial experimental writer Kathy Acker
and adopted numerous techniques for her writing through the example of Kathy Acker's fiction. She joined the comparative literature faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
where she taught and studied with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
and Jean-Luc Nancy
. She moved to New York University in 1995 where she then co-taught a course with Jacques Derrida until 2004. She is a core faculty member at the European Graduate School
. Themes of her work include technology (Test Drive, Telephone Book) and Stupidity/Idiocy. In addition to her own writing, she has produced English translations of Derrida's work.
, who was a close friend of Ronell's. The Telephone Book focuses on three themes: technology, schizophrenia and electric speech. The book begins with a sustained examination of Heidegger
's involvement with the Nazi Party and proceeds through a history of the telephone in light of Heidegger's "call to being." Ronell demonstrates the complexity of "the call" and its presence throughout contemporary culture including technology, psychology and art. In The Telephone Book, Ronell rejects the authoritarian position of the author and instead refers to herself as the "operator" of the text.
Crack Wars likens addiction to literature to drug addiction. Ronell avers that the work is a political gesture against the hysteria of the "racist" war on drugs. Beginning with an extensive survey of philosophical works on intoxication, including writings by Nietzsche
, Baudelaire
and Benjamin
, Crack Wars then examines Heidegger's descriptions of want, wishing and "being towards".
The Test Drive investigates the underlying logic of contemporary scientific discourses and their ethical and political implications. It does so by focusing on the idea of "the test" as a basis for discovering knowledge.
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
in Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
and a Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where she co-directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project. Avital Ronell has written as a literary critic, a feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, and philosopher.
Career
Ronell was born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She graduated from Rutgers Preparatory School
Rutgers Preparatory School
Rutgers Preparatory School is a private, coeducational, university preparatory day school located in Somerset, New Jersey serving students in Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade...
in 1971. She gained a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
and studied with Jacob Taubes
Jacob Taubes
Jacob Taubes was a sociologist of religion, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism.Taubes was born into an old rabbinical family. He was married to the writer Susan Taubes...
at the Hermeneutic Institute at the Free University of Berlin
Free University of Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...
. She received her Ph.D. in German under the advisement of Stanley Corngold at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1979, alongside her close friend and philosopher Laurence Rickels, and then continued her studies with Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
and Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
in Paris. She was a very close friend of the controversial experimental writer Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S...
and adopted numerous techniques for her writing through the example of Kathy Acker's fiction. She joined the comparative literature faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
where she taught and studied with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator....
and Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe...
. She moved to New York University in 1995 where she then co-taught a course with Jacques Derrida until 2004. She is a core faculty member at the European Graduate School
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. Themes of her work include technology (Test Drive, Telephone Book) and Stupidity/Idiocy. In addition to her own writing, she has produced English translations of Derrida's work.
Major works
Ronell's major works include The Telephone Book, Crack Wars and Test Drive. The author's deconstructive approach (wherein close reading of texts unveil hidden power structures) is informed by DerridaJacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
, who was a close friend of Ronell's. The Telephone Book focuses on three themes: technology, schizophrenia and electric speech. The book begins with a sustained examination of Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
's involvement with the Nazi Party and proceeds through a history of the telephone in light of Heidegger's "call to being." Ronell demonstrates the complexity of "the call" and its presence throughout contemporary culture including technology, psychology and art. In The Telephone Book, Ronell rejects the authoritarian position of the author and instead refers to herself as the "operator" of the text.
Crack Wars likens addiction to literature to drug addiction. Ronell avers that the work is a political gesture against the hysteria of the "racist" war on drugs. Beginning with an extensive survey of philosophical works on intoxication, including writings by Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
and Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
, Crack Wars then examines Heidegger's descriptions of want, wishing and "being towards".
The Test Drive investigates the underlying logic of contemporary scientific discourses and their ethical and political implications. It does so by focusing on the idea of "the test" as a basis for discovering knowledge.
Works
- (2012) Loser Sons, (ISBN 0-252-03664-6)
- (2010) Fighting Theory: In Conversation with Anne Dufourmantelle, (ISBN 0-252-07623-0) trans. by Catherine Porter and Avital Ronell from French
- (2007) The UberReader, (ISBN 0-252-07311-8 ) (ed. Diane Davis)
- (2007) Blind Date: Sex and Philosophy, (ISBN 0-252-07488-2) (by Anne Dufourmantelle, Introduction by Avital Ronell) trans. by Catherine Porter
- (2006) "Kathy Goes to Hell," in Lust for Life: On the Writings of Kathy Acker, (ISBN 1-844-67066-X), ed. by Avital Ronell, Carla Harryman, and Amy Scholder
- (2006) American philo: Entretiens avec Avital Ronell, (ISBN 2-234-05840-6) interviewed by Anne Dufourmantelle
- (2005) The Test Drive, (ISBN 0-252-02950-X)
- (2004) Scum Manifesto, (ISBN 1-85984-553-3) (by Valerie Solanas, Introduction by Avital Ronell)
- (2001) Stupidity, (ISBN 0-252-07127-1)
- (1998) Finitude's Score, (ISBN 0-8032-8949-9)
- (1993) Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania, (ISBN 0-252-07190-5)
- (1991) "Avital Ronell," in Re/Search: Angry Women 13, (ISBN 1-890451-05-3) interview with Andrea Juno
- (1989) Telephone Book, (ISBN 0-8032-8938-3)
- (1989) The Ear of the Other, (ISBN 0-8032-6575-1) trans., Jacques Derrida
- (1986) Dictations: On Haunted Writing, (ISBN 0-8032-8945-6)
- (1982) "La bouche émissaire," in Cahiers confrontation, n° 8
See also
- Examined LifeExamined LifeExamined Life is a 2008 documentary film directed by Astra Taylor. The film features eight influential contemporary philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises and discussing the practical application of their ideas in modern culture....
, Ronell walks through Tompkins Square Park and improvises a discussion with the filmmaker, of which only a 10-minute segment appeared in Astra Taylor's 2008 film about philosophers. - List of deconstructionists
External links
- Avital Ronell @ European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. Biography, bibliography and video lectures. - Diane D. Davis. Avital Ronell Center for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech
- Alexander LaurenceAlexander LaurenceAlexander Laurence is a writer who was born in Los Angeles, California in May 1964. He attended CSULB and studied English Literature, where he graduated in 1988. He moved to San Francisco, California in 1989 and New York City in 1996. In that time, he attended classes at SF Art Institute and the...
. Interview with Avital Ronell. 1994 ] - Brief Biography. at New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
- Examined Life. A 2008 film produced by the National Film Board of Canada that includes Avital Ronell.
- Diane D. Davis. Confessions of an Anacoluthon, Interview With Avital Ronell. 2000.
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x861pg_werner-herzog-et-avital-ronell-conf_creation#from=embediframe. Avital Ronell & Werner Herzog at Centre Pompidou, Dec. 2009 / “body no / body” lab : thought / eng. / german & french