The Body of Language

An erudite exploration of transgressive language from the Renaissance by one of Europe’s greatest living philosophers.

This book explores how early modern authors broke linguistic boundaries, creating new words and languages that challenged traditional grammar and lexicon, providing historical insight into today’s debates on the politics of language. Through a scholarly analysis by Giorgio Agamben, the text delves into the boundary-shifting language of the Renaissance, exemplified by giants like Pantagruel and Gargantua, whose outsized bodies mirror the vastness of their speech. The macaronic language invented by Teofilo Folengo, blending Latin and vernacular, embodies a linguistic rebellion that transforms language into a tangible, unruly force. Featuring illustrations from the Songes drolatiques de Pantagruel and Folengo’s Baldo, this volume offers a vivid portrayal of language as a physical, dynamic entity that defies grammatical norms.

Author Biography

Giorgio Agamben is one of Italy’s foremost contemporary thinkers. Several of his recent works are included on Seagull Books’ Italian List, including, most recently, What I Saw, Heard, Learned . . . .  Kevin Attell teaches at Cornell University and is the author of Giorgio Agamben: Beyond the Threshold of Deconstruction.