The Play of Light

<p><b>Juxtaposes five contemporary French poets illuminating the philosophical elements of their work while making their sometimes difficult writing newly accessible.</b></p><p>Drawing from five contemporary French poets-Jacques Roubaud Emmanuel Hocquard Danielle Collobert Anne Portugal and Jacques Jouet-Ann Smock juxtaposes them and provides a milieu suitable for philosophical reflection on identity on not-being and being on communication and on secrets. Smock also includes thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Giorgio Agamben who contribute to the conversation as do Jean-Luc Nancy and Maurice Blanchot. Though the poems considered here are often thought difficult Smock maintains a light touch throughout. She writes in an accessible even pleasurable style while contributing to the scholarly study of literature at the border shared by poetry and philosophy</p>