Rancière′s Sentiments

"Against the politics of belonging that infuses so much democratic theory today, Davide Panagia offers a characteristically bold reading of Rancière that makes us feel the force of a very different path to emancipatory democratic politics. Grounded in an aesthetics and politics of impropriety, Rancière's Sentiments shows the transformative potential of the unauthorized sensibilities, words, and acts of those who 'have no part' in the scenes of democratic politics conventionally conceived. An exciting piece of work." - Sharon R. Krause, author of Freedom beyond Sovereignty: Reconstructing Liberal Individualism

"Proposing a singular and provocative reading of Rancière's oeuvre, Davide Panagia refuses hermeneutics in favor of a focus on dispositions, style, modes of appearance, and arrangement of things that acknowledges the permanence and ubiquity of division while illuminating the productivity, playfulness, and generative quality of lines of division. Panagia offers a reading that seeks to be faithful to the disjunctive moments that inspire Rancière's writings, celebrating scenes of change rather than engagement in philosophical interpretation. Panagia's Rancière does not hold out a theory to overcome inequalities. In its stead Panagia's reading makes visible the power of the makings and doings of anyone and everyone in transforming sensibilities, opening up new possibilities of imagination: in short, enacting the aesthetics of politics." - Aletta J. Norval, author of Aversive Democracy: Inheritance and Originality in the Democratic Tradition

“To understand Rancière, Panagia argues, is to set aside the search for prescriptive constructs and instead embrace the aesthetic sensibilities that create the world. Recommended.” - L. A. Wilkinson, Choice

"Davide Panagia has written a complex and pathbreaking book that engages the work of democratic theorist Jacques Rancière in order to redefine what it means to practice democracy. Rancière’s Sentiments is not an introduction to Rancière’s oeuvre, but rather a book that grapples with his most difficult ideas in order to challenge established assumptions about how politics comes to be known, felt, and practiced." - Elisabeth Anker, Perspectives on Politics

"Rancière’s Sentiments is a whistle-stop tour of aesthetics in the work of Jacques Rancière. . . . Davide Panagia skillfully meshes a scenic narrative, wending his way through four chapters, each exploring a different line of division that Rancière’s writing puts into question." - Clare Woodford, Review of Politics

"Panagia gives a faithful and suitably free indirect account of Rancière’s expansive view of politics and aesthetics. . . . A scenographic retelling of Rancière’s politics and aesthetics that does not reduce the one to the other but keeps each alive as a challenge to the other." - John M. Carvalho, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

"I would recommend Davide Panagia's Rancière's Sentiments without hesitation to any researcher in literature, political science, or philosophy who seeks an articulate presentation of Rancière's very particular manner of thinking and arguing. Panagia has done a superb job of navigating through and illuminating the various constellations that characterize Rancière's thought, while maintaining the sense and the feel of a manner of thinking that elide closure." - David F. Bell, H-France, H-Net Reviews