Repetition, Recurrence, Returns

Repetition is constitutive of human life. Both the species and the individual develop through repetition. Unlike simple recall, repetition is permeated by the past and the present and is oriented toward the future. Repetition of central actions and events plays an important role in the lives of individuals and the life of society. It helps to create meaning and memory. Because repetition is a central aspect of human life, it plays a role in all social and cultural spheres. It is important for several branches of the humanities and social studies. This book presents studies of an array of repetitive phenomena and to show that repetition analysis is opening up a new field of study within single disciplines and interdisciplinary research. Recommended for scholars of literature, music, culture, and communication.

This highly recommended book identifies nothing less than a new riddle of the Sphinx: What animal embraces mimesis; rejects repetition in the quest for freedom; and grasps for reproducibility in the face of unpredictability? The authors offer unexpected insights into this enigma and, in the process, open the human condition to sobering inspection., Mental innovation is usually associated with the ability to forget the past. In order to create new thoughts or new events, it seems necessary to free oneself from the past and to make a kind of tabula rasa. This book demonstrates the contrary. Because our imagination is necessarily dialogic and requests the best possible answer from the world or from the other, it needs to be enriched permanently by the past. This enrichment is conditioning our creativity, our ability to find the new thoughts or new events that fulfill ourselves as much as we desire. Our creations are always re-harmonizing the best of our past with our drive to the future and to the accomplishment of ourselves. Reading Repetition, Recurrences, Returns will teach us how to insert these memory games in our conversation with ourselves and with our human fellows. It will help you to reinforce your creative power.

Joan Ramon Resina is professor of comparative literature and of Iberian cultures at Stanford University.Christoph Wulf is professor of anthropology and education at Freie Universität Berlin.