Introduction
A Marginal Centrist: Tzvetan Todorov and the French Intellectual
Field
Todorov and Camus
The Enlightenment Redux: Autonomy in Todorov, Glucksmann, and
Onfray
Todorov's Reading of Rousseau: A Heritage for Our Times?
Tzvetan Todorov's Enlightenment
Todorov and Bakhtin
Tzvetan Todorov and the Writing of History
Tzvetan Todorov and the Trials of History: A Dissenting Voice
European Integration and the Cultural Cold War: Todorov and Denis
de Rougemont
Tzvetan Todorov on Totalitarianism, Scientism, and Utopia
Tzvetan Todorov's Political Philosophy
Interview with Tzvetan Todorov
HENK DE BERG is Professor of German at the University of Sheffield. He has authored a book for Camden House (Freud's Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies, 2002, pb 2004) and co-edited two (Modern German Thought, 2012, and Tzvetan Todorov, 2020). KARINE ZBINDEN is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Sheffield.
The Bulgarian-born French scholar, writer, and intellectual Tzvetan
Todorov was one of the most accomplished minds of the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: however, the many books
that he has authored since parting ways with the Structuralist
movement of the 60s and 70s have not received anywhere near the
consideration they deserve, even though they constitute his most
significant contribution to the critical study of culture, society,
politics, and art. This critical overview of Todorov's life and
intellectual evolution provides a summary of his long, highly
productive, and wide-ranging career, bringing much-needed and
richly deserved attention to his thought. The editors and
contributors have brilliantly succeeded in their task: written in
clear, precise, jargon-free, and enjoyable prose, the book is
highly accessible even to undergraduates, yet it is remarkably
learned, having much to say about intellectual history and
Todorov's place in it. Instructors, graduate students, and advanced
researchers will all benefit from this book. - Nathan Bracher,
Professor of French, Texas A&M University
*Nathan Bracher, Professor of French, Texas A&M University*
It is curious that until now there has been no full-length study of
the work of Tzvetan Todorov. And while Todorov's early
structuralist phase is frequently discussed in accounts of literary
theory in general and structuralism in particular, his later work
remains to a large extent unknown and little remarked. This book is
therefore welcome, and a decisive intervention in the debate over
his significance. The portrait presented of Todorov has several
foci, including his 'marginal centricity' within the French
intellectual field; his philosophical precursors and influences, in
particular Rousseau and Bakhtin; his conception of the
Enlightenment; his views on historiography and on historical
judgments; his defense of a European identity; and his political
philosophy and critiques of totalitarianism, neoconservativism, and
neoliberalism. Throughout, the contributors relate Todorov's later
political thought to contemporary debates and discussions in ways
that are illuminating and helpful. - Paul Bishop, Professor of
German and William Jacks Chair in Modern Languages, University of
Glasgow
*Paul Bishop, Professor of German and William Jacks Chair in Modern
Languages, University of Glasgow*
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