Brother of the Above - Softcover

J.-B. Pontalis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097762756X ISBN 13: 9780977627561

Publisher: The Unconscious in Translation, 2013

Synopsis

Winner, Prix Médecis (Essai), 2006 Since 1980, J.-B. Pontalis has been writing works of a literary nature, often with autobiographical resonances. Brother of the Above is no exception for a clear subtext is the author's ongoing "self-analysis." Biographical dictionaries used often to place the less important of two brothers below the more important, describing the former as "brother of the above." Pontalis' subject is pairs of brothers in life and literature, renowned or anonymous - not least himself and his elder brother. Ever since Cain and Abel, jealousy and murderous rivalry between brothers have wreaked havoc. Pontalis' book asks if the destructive force of this relationship inevitably overwhelm the hope for human survival embodied in the usual meaning of "fraternity"? From Van Gogh to Flaubert, from the Goncourts to the Champollions, from Robert Louis Stevenson to Marcel Proust, Pontalis passes a host of brothers in review in search of an answer; in search, too, of deliverance from his own brother's shadow.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Unconscious in Translation
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 097762756X
• ISBN 13: 9780977627561
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200
• Editor: Jonathan House