Alison Ross

Walter Benjamin's Concept of the Image

Jean-Philippe Deranty

This book forms the first critical study of Jacques Rancière's impact and contribution to contemporary theoretical and interdisciplinary studies. It showcases the work of leading scholars in fields such as political theory, history and aesthetic theory; each of whom are uniquely situated to engage with the novelty of Rancière's thinking within their respective fields. Each of the essays provides an investigation into the critical stance Rancière takes towards his contemporaries, concentrating on the versatile application of his thought to diverse fields of study (including, political and education theory, cinema studies, literary and aesthetic theory, and historical studies). The aim of this collection is to use the critical interventions Rancière's writing makes on current topics and themes as a way of offering new critical perspectives on his thought. Wielding their individual expertise, each contributor assesses his perspectives and positions on thinkers and topics of contemporary importance. The edition includes a new essay by Jacques Rancière, which charts the different problems and motivations that have shaped his work.

The Philosophy of Radical Equality

Jacques Ranciere and the Contemporary Scene

Monica Bray

Celia Todd

This book demonstrates how students can apply what they have learned to bridge the gap between theory and therapy as they begin their professional practice. The authors argue that the only way to be ready to face the demands of professional practice and life-long learning is to acquire a thorough understanding of the process and practice of clinical work. Fully revised, this second edition incorporates: new standards of service delivery and clinical competencies registration of the profession under the Health Professions Council collaborative working with shared client programmes and records client-centred philosophy and social models of intervention The authors emphasize the need to have a sound knowledge of what the profession is and who it encompasses; the awareness of the concepts that underpin decision-making, planning and choice of activities; and understanding of the philosophies that drive the choice of working practices.

Clinical Process and Practice

Speech and Language

This book places Benjamin’s writing on revolution in the context of his conception of historical knowledge. The fundamental problem that faces any analysis of Benjamin’s approach to revolution is that he deploys notions that belong to the domain of individual experience. His theory of modernity with its emphasis on the disintegration of collective experience further aggravates the problem. Benjamin himself understood the problem of revolution to be primarily that of the conceptualization of collective experience (its possibility and sites) under the conditions of modern bourgeois society. The novelty of his approach to revolution lies in the fact that he directly connects it with historical experience. Benjamin’s conception of revolution thus constitutes an integral part of his distinctive theory of historical knowledge, which is also essentially a theory of experience. Through a detailed study of Benjamin’s writings on the topics of the child and the dream, and an analysis of his ideas of history, the fulfilled wish, similitude and communist society, this book shows how the conceptual analysis of his corpus can get to the heart of Benjamin’s conception of revolutionary experience and distil its difficulties and mechanisms.

A Conceptual Analysis

Revolution and History in Walter Benjamin

This collection of essays aims to investigate the unique place of Jacques Rancière in the contemporary intellectual scene

In this book, Alison Ross engages in a detailed study of Walter Benjamin’s concept of the image, exploring the significant shifts in Benjamin’s approach to the topic over the course of his career. Using Kant’s treatment of the topic of sensuous form in his aesthetics as a comparative reference, Ross argues that Benjamin’s thinking on the image undergoes a major shift between his 1924 essay on ‘Goethe’s Elective Affinities,’ and his work on The Arcades Project from 1927 up until his death in 1940. The two periods of Benjamin’s writing share a conception of the image as a potent sensuous force able to provide a frame of existential meaning. In the earlier period this function attracts Benjamin’s critical attention, whereas in the later he mobilises it for revolutionary outcomes. The book gives a critical treatment of the shifting assumptions in Benjamin’s writing about the image that warrant this altered view. It draws on hermeneutic studies of meaning, scholarship in the history of religions and key texts from the modern history of aesthetics to track the reversals and contradictions in the meaning functions that Benjamin attaches to the image in the different periods of his thinking. Above all, it shows the relevance of a critical consideration of Benjamin’s writing on the image for scholarship in visual culture, critical theory, aesthetics and philosophy more broadly.

The Language of Humour: * examines the importance of the social context for humour * explores the issue of gender and humour in areas such as the New Lad culture in comedy and stand-up comedy * includes comic transcripts from TV sketches such as Clive Anderson and Peter Cook

The Language of Humour

Revised and updated to cover the set texts in the AQA B specification, this second edition focuses on the assessment objectives - showing students how to achieve maximum marks - and offers exam and coursework tips throughout to help students get good grades.

Alison Ross

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