The Returns of Fetishism: Charles de Brosses and the Afterlives of an Idea

For more than 250 years, Charles de Brosses’s term “fetishism” has exerted great influence over our most ambitious thinkers. Used as an alternative to “magic,” but nonetheless expressing the material force of magical thought, de Brosses’s term has proved indispensable to thinkers as diverse as Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Derrida. With this book, Daniel H. Leonard offers the first fully annotated English translation of the text that started it all, On the Worship of Fetish Gods, and Rosalind C. Morris offers incisive commentary that helps modern readers better understand it and its legacy. The product of de Brosses’s autodidactic curiosity and idiosyncratic theories of language, On the Worship of Fetish Gods is an enigmatic text that is often difficult for contemporary audiences to assess. In a thorough introduction to the text, Leonard situates de Brosses’s work within the cultural and intellectual milieu of its time. Then, Morris traces the concept of fetishism through its extraordinary permutations as it was picked up and transformed by the fields of philosophy, comparative religion, political economy, psychoanalysis, and anthropology. Ultimately, she breaks new ground, moving into and beyond recent studies by thinkers such as William Pietz, Hartmut Böhme, and Alfonso Iacono through illuminating new discussions on topics ranging from translation issues to Africanity and the new materialisms.

History

De Brosses, Charles

Morris, Rosalind C.

Leonard, Daniel H.

Europe

University of Chicago Press

Du Culte Des Dieux Fetiches, Ou Parallele De L'Ancienne Religion De L'Egypte Avec La Religion Actuelle De Nigritie (1760) (French Edition)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Kessinger Publishing

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

Lettres Historiques Et Critiques Sur L'Italie V2: Avec Des Notes Relatives A La Situation Actuelle De L'Italie (1799) (French Edition)

Teen & Young Adult

L'Italie Il Y A Cent Ans Ou Lettres Ecrites D'Italie A Quelques Amis En 1739 Et 1740 (1856) (French Edition)

Le President De Brosses En Italie V2: Lettres Familieres Ecrite D'Italie En 1739 Et 1740 (1861) (French Edition)

Colomb, Romain

Le Président De Brosses En Italie: Lettres Familières Écrites D'italie En 1739 Et 1740, Volume 2 (French Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Nabu Press

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Books by De Brosses, Charles