Étienne Souriau
Étienne Souriau (26 April 1892, Lille – 19 November 1979, Paris) was a French philosopher, best known for his work in aesthetics and filmology.
Souriau was Professor at the University of Aix-en-Provence (1925-29), then in Lyon, and from 1941 at Sorbonne. In 1948, together with Charles Lalo and Raymond Bayer he founded the journal Revue d'esthétique. [1]
Only a few of his texts were translated into English, including "Time in the Plastic Arts" (1949), "The Cube and the Sphere" (1952), and "A General Methodology for the Scientific Study of Aesthetic Appreciation" (1955). The most extensive English-language introductions to his work to date are Vitry Maubrey 1985 and Latour 2011. 2015 saw the first translation of his The Different Modes of Existence.
Works[edit]
(in French unless noted otherwise)
Books[edit]
- Pensée vivante et perfection formelle, Paris: Hachette, 1925, xv+308 pp; new ed., Paris: PUF, 1952. Principal doctoral thesis. Review: Pialat (1927).
- L'abstraction sentimentale, Paris: Hachette, 1925, v+144 pp; new ed., Paris: PUF, 1951. Secondary doctoral thesis. Review: Pialat (1927).
- L'avenir de l'esthétique: essai sur l'objet d'une science naissante, Paris: Alcan, 1929, viii+403 pp. Review: Couissin (1929).
- [The Future of Aesthetics], trans. Celesta Pirwitz, 1976. Unpublished typescript. [2] (English)
- partial trans. in I percorsi delle forme, Milan: B. Mondadori, 1997, pp 156-165 & 388-394. (Italian)
- Avoir une âme, Paris: Belles-Lettres, 1939.
- L'instauration philosophique, Paris: PUF, 1939.
- Les différents modes d'existence, Paris: Alcan, 1943, 166 pp; new ed., intro. Isabelle Stengers and Bruno Latour, Paris: PUF, 2009, 220 pp.
- Die verschiedenen Modi der Existenz, intro. Isabelle Stengers and Bruno Latour, trans. Thomas Wäckerle, Lüneburg: meson press, 2015, 224 pp. [3] (German)
- The Different Modes of Existence, trans. Erik Beranek and Tim Howles, Minneapolis: Univocal, 2015, 240 pp. (English)
- I differenti modi di esistenza: e altri testi sull'ontologia dell'arte, trans. Filippo Domenicali, Milan: Mimesis, 2017, 298 pp. (Italian)
- Los diferentes modos de existencia: seguido por Del modo de existencia de la obra por hacer, trans. Sebastián Puente, Buenos Aires: Cactus, 2017, 251 pp. Excerpt. (Spanish)
- La correspondance des arts, Paris: Flammarion, 1947, 319 pp; new ed. as La correspondance des arts, science de l'homme: éléments d'esthétique comparée, Paris: Flammarion, 1969, 320 pp. Excerpt.
- Odnos među umetnostima: problemi uporedne estetike, trans. Miloš Jovanović, Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1958, 296 pp. (Serbo-Croatian)
- La correspondencia de las artes: elementos de estética comparada, trans. Margarita Nelken, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1965, 353 pp. (Spanish)
- A correspondencia das artes: elementos de estética comparada, trans. Maria Cecília Queirozde Moraes Pinto and Maria Helena Ribeiro da Cunha, São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 1983. (Brazilian Portuguese)
- La corrispondenza delle arti, trans. Raffaele Milani, Firenze: Alinea, 1988. (Italian)
- Damascus: Publications of the Ministry of Culture in the Syrian Arab Republic, 1993, 375 pp. (Arabic)
- Les deux cent mille situations dramatiques, Paris: Flammarion, 1950.
- Dvesta hiljada dramskih situacija, trans. Mira Vuković, Belgrade: Nolit, 1982. (Serbian)
- As duzentas mil situações dramáticas, trans. Maria Lúcia Pereira and Antônio Edson Cadengue, São Paulo: Atica, 1993, 230 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
- with Charles Lalo and P. Le Goupils, Esthétique industrielle, Paris: PUF, 1952, 190 pp. Consists of articles from Revue d'esthétique, Jul-Dec 1951.
- editor, L'univers filmique, Paris: Flammarion, 1953, 210 pp. Anthology of texts from the filmology movement. Excerpt.
- L'ombre de dieu, Paris: PUF, 1955. Commentary: Declève (1988).
- Le sens artistique des animaux, Paris: Hachette, 1965.
- Il senso artistico degli animali, trans. M. Porro, Milan: Mimesis, 2002, 71 pp. (Italian)
- La Poésie française et la peinture, London: Athlone Press, 1966, 52 pp. Lecture.
- Clefs pour l'esthétique, Paris: Seghers, 1970.
- La couronne d'herbes. Esquisse d'une morale sur des bases purement esthétiques, Paris: U.G.E., 1975.
- L'avenir de la philosophie, Paris: Gallimard, 1982.
- Vocabulaire d'esthétique, ed. Anne Souriau, Paris: PUF, 1990, vi+1415 pp; 2nd ed., Paris: PUF, 2004, viii+1415 pp; 3rd ed., 2010, 1493 pp. Review: Gravel (1991), Pascale (1993).
- Encyklopedie estetiky, trans. Zdeněk Hrbata et al., intro. Anne Souriauová, Prague: Victoria Publishing, 1994, 939 pp. (Czech)
- Diccionario Akal de estética, trans. Ismael Grasa Adé et al., rev. Fernando Castro Flórez, Madrid: Akal, 1998, 1087 pp. [4] (Spanish)
- Das filmische Universum. Schriften zur Ästhetik des Kinos, ed. & trans. Guido Kirsten, Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2020, vi+181 pp. Selected essays. (German)
- Courses at Sorbonne
- Les grandes problèmes de l’esthétique théâtrale, Paris: C.D.U., 1956, 101 pp.
- I grandi problemi dell'estetica teatrale: dattiloscritto per la serie I corsi della Sorbona: Estetica, Centre de Documentation Universitaire, ed. Chiara Cappelletto, Milan: Mimesis, 2014, 148 pp. (Italian)
- Les structures de l’œuvre d’art, Paris: C.D.U., 1956, 109 pp.
- La condition humaine vue à travers l’art, Paris: C.D.U., 1962?.
- L'évolution du besoin esthétique à travers les ages [1960-61], Paris: C.D.U., 1964, 107 pp.
- Les catégories esthétiques, Paris: C.D.U., 1966, 107 pp.
- Les structures maîtresses de l'oeuvre d'art, Paris: C.D.U., 1966, 109 pp.
Selected articles[edit]
- "L'Algorithme musical", Revue philosophique 104 (Jul-Dec 1927), pp 204-241.
- with M. Bourgarel and Maurice Blondel, "L'instant", Les Études philosophiques 2:2/3 (Nov 1928), pp 96-102.
- "Esthétique musicale", Revue philosophique 111 (Jan-Jun 1931), pp 454-459.
- "Art et verité", Revue philosophique 115 (Jan-Jun 1933), pp 161-201.
- "Le Hasard, les equilibres cosmiques et les perfections singulières", Les études Philosophiques 15:1 (1941), pp 13-15.
- "Chance, Cosmic Equilibriums and Singular Perfections", trans. Kris Pender, n.d. (English)
- "Nature et limite des contributions positives de l'Esthétique à la Filmologie", Revue internationale de filmologie 1:1 (Jul-Aug 1947), pp 47-64.
- "Beiträge der Ästhetik zur Filmologie - ihre Natur und Grenzen", trans. Frank Kessler, montage/av 12:1 (2003), pp 72-93. (German)
- "Étude critique: Les fonctions psychologiques et les œuvres d’après I. Meyerson", Journal de Psychologie Normale et Psychologique 41 (1948), pp 480-481.
- "La culture et le respect des cultures", Les Etudes philosophiques 3:2 (1948), pp 226-230.
- "Le cube et le sphere", in Architecture et dramaturgie, ed. A. Villiers, Paris: Flammarion, 1950, pp 63-83. An address delivered at Sorbonne on 9 Dec 1948, before the Center of Philosophical and Technical Studies in the Theatre.
- "The Cube and the Sphere", trans. Claude P. Viens, Educational Theatre Journal 4:1 (Mar 1952), pp 11-18. (English)
- "Time in the Plastic Arts", trans. Marjorie Kupersmith, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 7:4 (Jun 1949), pp 294-307; repr. in Reflections on Art: A Source Book of Writings by Artists, Critics and Philosophers, ed. Susanne K. Langer, John Hopkins Press, 1958, pp 122-141. (English)
- "La structure de l'univers filmique", Revue internationale de filmologie 2:7-8 (1951), pp 231-240.
- "Die Struktur des filmischen Universums und das Vokabular der Filmologie", trans. Frank Kessler, montage/av 6:2 (1997), pp 140-157. [5] (German)
- "Art et Philosophie", Revue philosophique 144 (1954), pp 1-21.
- "Charles Lalo (1887-1953)", Revue philosophique 144 (1954), pp 171-173.
- "A General Methodology for the Scientific Study of Aesthetic Appreciation", trans. Van Meter Ames, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 14:1 (Sep 1955), pp 1-18. [6] (English)
- "Culture et cinéma", Enfance 10:3 (1957), pp 373-375.
- "La part de la contemplation", Revue philosophique 151 (1961), pp 179-200.
- "L'esthétique et l'artiste contemporain", Leonardo 1:1 (Jan 1968), pp 63-68.
- "L'intervention des machines dans la création artistique", in Souriau, et al., Approches de l'art. Mélanges d'esthétique et de sciences de l'art offerts à Arsène Soreil, Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1973.
- "Du génie en philosophie", Revue philosophique 165:2 (Apr-Jun 1975), pp 129-146.
- more
Bibliography[edit]
Literature[edit]
- Mikel Dufrenne, Phénoménologie de l'expérience esthétique, Paris: PUF, 1953.
- Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience, trans. Edward S. Casey, et al., Northwestern University Press, 1973. (English)
- Henry Corbin, Alone With the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi [1958], Princeton University Press, 1969; 1997, pp 290-293. (English) Compares Qur'anic ta'wil (esoteric interpretation) to Souriau's account of transition from virtual existence to supraexistence.
- Ngô-Tiêng-Hiên, "Art et vérité dans l'œuvre d'Étienne Souriau", Revue Philosophique de Louvain 69:1 (1971), pp 73-91.
- Luce de Vitry Maubrey, La pensée cosmologique d'Étienne Souriau, Paris: Klinsieck, 1974.
- Cecile Cloutier, L'Esthétique d'Etienne Souriau, McMaster University, 1977. Thesis.
- Revue d'esthétique 3-4: "L'Art instaurateur", Paris: U.G.E., 1980. Special issue on Souriau.
- Christian Metz, "Sur un profil d'Etienne Souriau," Revue d'esthétique 3-4 (1980), pp 143-160.
- "A Profile of Etienne Souriau", On Film 12 (Spring 1984), pp 5-8. (English)
- Luce de Vitry Maubrey, "Etienne Souriau's Cosmic Vision and the Coming-Into-Its-Own of the Platonic Other", Man and World 18:3 (1985), pp 325-345. (English)
- Frank Kessler, "Etienne Souriau und das Vokabular der filmologischen Schule", montage/av 6:2 (1997), 132-139. (German)
- Bruno Latour, "Sur un livre d'Etienne Souriau Les Différents modes d'existence", n.d.
- "Reflections on Etienne Souriau's Les différents modes d'existence", trans. Stephen Muecke, in The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, eds. Bryant, Srnicek and Harman, Melbourne: re.press, 2011, pp 304-333. [7] (English)
- Leonard Lawlor, "A Note on the Relation between Étienne Souriau's L'Instauration philosophique and Deleuze and Guattari's What is Philosophy?", Deleuze Studies 5:3 (2011), pp 400-406. [8] (English)
- Yuk Hui, "On Latour and Simondon’s Mode of Existence", Digital Milieu blog, Jan 2013. Lecture. (English)
- Fleur Courtois-L'heureux, Aline Wiame (eds.), Étienne Souriau. Une ontologie de l’instauration, Paris: Vrin, 2015. [9] (French)
- Nouvelle revue d’esthétique 19(1): "Étienne Souriau", Paris: PUF, 2017, 236 pp. (French)
- more
See also[edit]
Links[edit]
- Bruno Latour & Antoine Hennion: L'’Ange de l’œuvre. Étienne Souriau, from Aesthetics to an Ontology of Uncertain Beings, video from the lecture given at IKKM Weimar, Jun 2013. (English)
- Short biography, Trivium. (French)
- Wikipedia-FR