The Contemplation of the World: Figures of Community Style

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. xvi, 151 pages; 23 cm Very fine; as new. Paperback. ISBN: 9780816626885, 9780816626892

Translation of the French language original: Contemplation du Monde. "In The Contemplation of the World, eminent French theorist Michel Maffesoli pursues and extends his project of decoding contemporary societies. Here, Maffesoli questions afresh the mundane stuff of contemporary sociality, seeking to discern its primary mode of expression - its forms, style, rules, and principles - its aesthetics. The advent of postmodernity marks the beginning of "the society of the image." It is as if the fragmentation of the social has gradually and necessarily corresponded to massive crumbling of our representations of the real and resulted in their infinite refraction. Henceforward we are living in the heart of an ever-increasing entanglement of objects, signs, and images. Located somewhere between dream and reality, we are the unfettered prisoners of a symbolic universe of growing opacity and mysterious meanings."—Publisher. // Contents: I. Treatise on Style. II. The Imaginal World. III. The Communitarian Ideal. Language Notes: Translation of Contemplation du Monde. // Aesthetics, Ästhetik, Esthetica, Postmoderne, Postmodernism, Postmodernisme, Stijlen, Contents:, I. Treatise on Style, II. The Imaginal World, III. The Communitarian Ideal, Language