The Scenic Imagination: Originary Thinking from Hobbes to the Present Day - Hardcover

by Eric Gans (Author)

This book demonstrates the indispensability of the "scenic imagination" to human self-understanding by examining hypothetical scenes of origin in the writings of two dozen thinkers from Hobbes to the present day.

Author Biography

Eric Gans has taught French literature and film at UCLA since 1969. Beginning with The Origin of Language (1981), Gans developed the concept of generative anthropology and has written four other books on the subject, including Signs of Paradox: Irony, Resentment, and Other Mimetic Structures (Stanford, 1997). He has also written books on Gustave Flaubert, Prosper Mérimée, and Alfred de Musset. Professor Gans is a Chevalier des Palmes académiques.