{"product_id":"the-design-of-montaignes-essais-hardcover","title":"The Design of Montaigne's Essais - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat can design tell us about literature? What can literature tell us about design?Â\u003cem\u003eThe Design of Montaigne's 'Essais'\u003c\/em\u003e provides a model for answering these questions by analysing the uses and function of the term \u003cem\u003edessein\u003c\/em\u003e. Wresting design free from its intentionalist connotations and focusing instead on the polysemy of the term in its early modern usage, which connoted both a mental plan or intention, and a material drawing or sketch, this study emphasises the open-ended design of the \u003cem\u003eEssais\u003c\/em\u003e, placing particular importance on its affinities with the practice of sketching. Looking across the Italian border at theories and practices of drawing, the book places Montaigne's \u003cem\u003edessein\u003c\/em\u003e in dialogue with its Italian counterpart \u003cem\u003edisegno\u003c\/em\u003e, arguing for the importance of the visual dimension in Montaigne's thinking, and in his writerly imagination. The dynamism and restlessness of \u003cem\u003edessein\u003c\/em\u003e allow us to reconsider the visual metaphors used by Montaigne to characterise the project of the \u003cem\u003eEssais\u003c\/em\u003e in light of the errance of the drawn line. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVittoria Fallanca offers a fresh way to capture the essentially gerundive nature of the \u003cem\u003eEssais\u003c\/em\u003e, constructing a visual and spatial perspective on a text by tracking multiple lines of thought that are, paradoxically, designed to escape its author's intention and control. In following the vagaries of \u003cem\u003edessein\u003c\/em\u003e as it operates in Montaigne, the book also offers a perspective on the relationship between design and literary studies, the ways in which design can be put in our critical approaches as readers of literature, with a focus on the text as an object of use. Far from an end-oriented practice of self- or artistic control, design emerges in this book as a chancy, experimental encounter between mind and world.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51263147016415,"sku":"9780198985488","price":179.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/fpV19KnlwL9780198985488.webp?v=1787644357","url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/products\/the-design-of-montaignes-essais-hardcover","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}