Book cover for Coming by Jean-Luc Nancy and Adèle Van Reeth
2016 Released
168 Pages
2-3 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
Fordham University PressISBN 9780823273485
Translated by Charlotte Mandell

Coming is a lyrical, erudite examination of the French notion of jouissance. How did jouissance evolve from referring to the pleasure of possessing a material thing (property, wealth) to the pleasure of orgasm, from appropriation to dis-appropriation, from consumption to consummation? The philosophers Adèle van Reeth and Jean-Luc Nancy engage in a lively dialogue, ranging from consumerism to video games to mysticism and from Spinoza, Hegel, andAugustine to the Marquis de Sade, Marguerite Duras, and Henry Miller. Four additional essays are new to the American edition.

Charlotte Mandell

Translated by

A Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Charlotte Mandell has translated over fifty books from the French, including works by Flaubert, Proust, and Genet. In 2001 she received a translation prize from the Modern Language Association for her translation of Faux Pas by Maurice Blanchot, in 2018 she won the National Translation Award in Prose for her translation of Compass by Mathias Énard, in 2024 she received the Thornton Wilder Translation Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2026 she received the French American Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of The Deserters by Mathias Énard. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, the poet Robert Kelly.

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