Publisher Description

The Incident at Antioch is a key play marking Alain Badiou's transition from classical Marxism to a "politics of subtraction" far removed from party and state. Written with striking eloquence and extraordinary poetic richness, and shifting from highly serious emotional and intellectual drama to surreal comic interlude, the work features statesmen, workers, and revolutionaries struggling to reconcile the nature and practice of politics.

This bilingual edition presents L'Incident d'Antioche in its original French and, on facing pages, an expertly executed English translation. Badiou adds a special preface, and an introduction by the scholar Kenneth Reinhard connects the play to Paul Claudel's The City, Saint Paul and the early history of the Church, and the innovative mathematical thinking of Paul Cohen. The translation includes Susan Spitzer's extensive notes clarifying allusions and quotations and hinting at Badiou's intentions. An interview with Badiou encompasses the play's settings, themes, and events, as well as his ongoing literary and conceptual experimentation on stage and off.

Notes

The long-anticipated first publication in bilingual format of the French philosopher's play, with an introduction by Kenneth Reinhard and translated by Susan Spitzer.

Author Biography

Alain Badiou (PhD, Philosophy, Ecole Normale Superieure) holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School; he also teaches at the Ecole Normale Superieure and the College International de Philosophie in Paris. He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works, including his masterwork, Being and Event (Continuum, 2007), and several Columbia titles, includng Plato's Republic (2013) and Jacques Lacan Past and Present (2016).

Review

Badiou resembles Sartre in the versatility, creativity, and energy that make them major literary authors as well as philosophers. It is a measure of Spitzer's talent as a translator that she manages to preserve the literariness of Badiou's language-its difficulty, strangeness, and beauty-while making it vivid and fluid and consistent with the syntactical and grammatical demands of English. -- Joseph Litvak, Tufts University Badiou's work on and in the theatre are considerable contributions not only for their ability to give a sense of what a Badiouian approach to performance and theatre studies might be, but also for their capacity to bring Badiou's deep engagement with theatre to light for English-speaking scholars across a variety of philosophical and political fields. -- Ethan Philbrick TDR: The Drama Review A terse political treatise... [The Incident at Antioch] is a worthwhile read for anyone wanting to gain further insight into, or who would perhaps enjoy walking the country road through the beet field that is, Badiou's undertaking. -- Elisabeth Paquette The European Legacy

Promotional

Badiou is one of very few writers for the theater to reflect explicitly on the contemporary possibilities and limits of political theater. -- Peter Hallward, Kingston University Between three Pauls, the apostle, Claudel, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Badiou revives the tradition of political theater. In language of unprecedented beauty, he portrays a city--both archaic and ultra-contemporary--whose prince is, or will be, a woman. -- Catherine Malabou, University of Kingston

Review Quote

Badiou's work on and in the theatre are considerable contributions not only for their ability to give a sense of what a Badiouian approach to performance and theatre studies might be, but also for their capacity to bring Badiou's deep engagement with theatre to light for English-speaking scholars across a variety of philosophical and political fields.

Promotional "Headline"

The long-anticipated first publication in any language of the French philosopher's play, based on events in the life of Saint Paul and early Christianity, the Paris Commune of 1871, and the Parisian protests of May 1968.

Details