The Seventh Function of Language Contributor(s): Binet, Laurent (Author), Taylor, Sam (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1250181682 ISBN-13: 9781250181688 Publisher: Picador USA OUR PRICE: $16.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Humorous - General - Fiction | Mystery & Detective - International Crime & Mystery |
Dewey: FIC |
Physical Information: 1" H x 5.4" W x 8.2" (0.60 lbs) 368 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: From the prizewinning author of HHhH, "the most insolent novel of the year" (L'Express) is a romp through the French intelligentsia of the twentieth century. Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies--struck by a laundry van--after lunch with the presidential candidate Fran ois Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn't an accident at all? What if Barthes was . . . murdered? In The Seventh Function of Language, Laurent Binet spins a madcap secret history of the French intelligentsia, starring such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Julia Kristeva--as well as the hapless police detective Jacques Bayard, whose new case will plunge him into the depths of literary theory (starting with the French version of Roland Barthes for Dummies). Soon Bayard finds himself in search of a lost manuscript by the linguist Roman Jakobson on the mysterious "seventh function of language." A brilliantly erudite comedy, The Seventh Function of Language takes us from the caf s of Saint-Germain to the corridors of Cornell University, and into the duels and orgies of the Logos Club, a secret philosophical society that dates to the Roman Empire. Binet has written both a send-up and a wildly exuberant celebration of the French intellectual tradition. |
Contributor Bio(s): Taylor, Sam: - Sam Taylor has written for The Guardian, Financial Times, Vogue and Esquire, and has translated such works as the award-winning HHhH by Laurent Binet, and the internationally-bestselling The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker.Binet, Laurent: - Laurent Binet was born in Paris, France, in 1972. He is the author of La Vie professionnelle de Laurent B., a memoir of his experience teaching in secondary schools in Paris. In March 2010, his debut novel, HHhH, won the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman. Laurent Binet is a professor at the University of Paris III, where he lectures on French literature. |