An often fascinating mix of theoretical reflection, intellectual history and literary criticism ... The Pathos of Distance is invariably interesting and its amazing erudition is simply dazzling.

Literary Research

In his latest book, the prolifically inventive scholar Jean-Michel Rabaté offers a lyrical meditation on Nietzsche's famous concept of the 'pathos of distance,' drawing out the implications of this pathos for modernist aesthetics. Instead of a conventional go-ahead academic argument, Rabaté presents a 'chronotopic mosaic,' ranging across several languages and cultural traditions. In this panoramic vista, unexpected affinities emerge between such figures as Benjamin and Duchamp, Eliot and Lukács, Kierkegaard and Siri Hustvedt. Breathtaking in range and erudition, and crafted with elegance and wit, The Pathos of Distance enriches our understanding of modernism while pioneering a new mode of thinking and writing about art and literature.

Maud Ellmann, Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Professor of the Development of the Novel in English, University of Chicago, USA

Jean-Michel Rabaté's exceptional grasp of the broadest landscapes of modern literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis and culture is brought to bear in this volume on a range of writings and visual representations from the late nineteenth century to the present, from Yeats and Eliot to Coetzee and Hustvedt. In these brilliant readings and explorations of terms for thought – aura, allegory, affect – we find texts, images and concepts opened up in entirely new ways.

Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature, New College, University of Oxford, UK

The Pathos of Distance is an inspiring achievement, a work of remarkable breadth and precision. It is an invaluable addition to the conversation on modernism and affect … The book reminds us that critical reading at its best – the kind of generous reading that revitalizes conversations and opens up new interpretive avenues – is often complicit with methodological inventiveness.

James Joyce Quarterly