Essays from the Edge

Over his distinguished career as a European intellectual historian andcultural critic, Martin Jay has explored a variety of major themes: the Frankfurt School, the exileof German intellectuals in America during the Nazi era, Western Marxism, the denigration of visionin twentieth-century French thought, the discourse of experience in modern Europe and America,and lying in politics. Essays from the Edge assembles Jay's writings fromthe intersections of this intellectual journey. Several essays focus on methodological debates inthe humanities and social sciences: the limits of interdisciplinarity, the issue of national oruniversal philosophy, cultural relativism and visuality, and the implications of periodization inhistorical narrative. Others examine the concept of ",scopic regime", and the metaphors ofrevolution and the gardening impulse. Among the theorists treated at length are Theodor Adorno,Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. The essays also include several of Jay'sSalmagundi columns, dealing with subjects as varied as the new Museum of ModernArt in New York, the impact of Colin Wilson's The Outsider, and the demise of thePartisan Review.All of these efforts can be considered whatArthur Schopenhauer called, to borrow the title of one of his most celebrated collections,",parerga and paralipomena.", As essays from the edges of major projects, they illuminateJay's major arguments, elaborate points made only in passing in the larger texts, and exploreideas farther than would have been possible, given the focus of the larger works themselves. Theresult is a lively, diverse offering from an extraordinary intellect.