Peter Szendy
Encyclopedia
Peter Szendy is a French philosopher and musicologist.
His Écoute, une histoire de nos oreilles (2001), with a preface by Jean-Luc Nancy
, has been translated into Spanish and English (Listen, A History of Our Ears). Criticizing Romantic and Modernist conceptions of listening, he suggests an alternative model based on deconstruction: listening, he argues (quoting C. P. E. Bach), is a "tolerated theft", and our ears are always already haunted by the ear of the other.
In Sur écoute. Esthétique de l'espionnage (2007), he draws on Foucault
's analysis of the Panopticon
and Deleuze's Postscript on the Societies of Control in order to show how the act of listening always entails issues of power and dominion. Sur écoute proposes an archeology of overhearing, following many paths, from the Bible to spy movies like Hitchcock's Torn Curtain
or Coppola's The Conversation
.
Szendy's Prophecies of Leviathan. Reading Past Melville explores the relationships between reading, temporality, and sovereignty.
His Écoute, une histoire de nos oreilles (2001), with a preface by 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...
, has been translated into Spanish and English (Listen, A History of Our Ears). Criticizing Romantic and Modernist conceptions of listening, he suggests an alternative model based on deconstruction: listening, he argues (quoting C. P. E. Bach), is a "tolerated theft", and our ears are always already haunted by the ear of the other.
In Sur écoute. Esthétique de l'espionnage (2007), he draws on Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
's analysis of the Panopticon
Panopticon
The Panopticon is a type of building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched...
and Deleuze's Postscript on the Societies of Control in order to show how the act of listening always entails issues of power and dominion. Sur écoute proposes an archeology of overhearing, following many paths, from the Bible to spy movies like Hitchcock's Torn Curtain
Torn Curtain
Torn Curtain is a 1966 American political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.-Plot:On a cruise ship en route to Copenhagen, Michael Armstrong , an esteemed American physicist and rocket scientist, is to attend a scientific conference...
or Coppola's The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
.
Szendy's Prophecies of Leviathan. Reading Past Melville explores the relationships between reading, temporality, and sovereignty.
Publications
- Listen: a history of our ears, with a foreword by Jean-Luc Nancy, Fordham University Press, 2008.
- Prophecies of Leviathan. Reading Past Melville, with an afterword by Gil Anidjar, Fordham University Press, 2010.