The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower
Robert F. Barsky
Price
1680
ISBN
9788125037262
Language
English
Pages
400
Format
Paperback
Dimensions
140 x 216 mm
Year of Publishing
2009
Territorial Rights
Restricted
Imprint
Orient BlackSwan

Noam Chomsky has been praised by the likes of Bono and Hugo Chavez and attacked by the likes of Ton Wolfe and Alan Dershowitz. Ground-breaking linguist and outspoken political dissenter-voted “most important public intellectual in the world today” in a 2005 magazine poll-Chomsky inspires fanatical devotion and fierce vituperation. In The Chomsky effect, Chomsky biographer Robert Barsky examines his subject’s positions on a number of highly charged issues-Chomsky’s signature issues, including Vietnam, Israel, East Timor, and his work in linguistics-that illustrate not only “the Chomsky effect” but also “the Chomsky approach.”

Chomsky, writes Barsky, is an inspiration and a catalyst. Not just an analyst or advocate, he encourages people to become engaged---to be “dangerous” and challenge power and privilege. The actions and reactions of Chomsky supporters and detractors and the attending contentiousness can be thought of as “the Chomsky effect”. Barsky discusses Chomsky’s work in such areas as language studies, media, education, law, and politics and identifies Chomsky’s intellectual and political precursors. He charts anti-Chomsky sentiments as expressed from various standpoints, including contemporary Zionism, mainstream politics and scholarly communities. He discusses Chomsky’s popular appeal---his unlikely status as punk and rock hero (Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is one of many rock and roll Chomskyites)---and offers in-depth analyses of the controversies surrounding Chomsky’s roles in the “Faurisson Affair” and the “Pol Pot Affair.” Finally, Barsky considers the role of the public intellectual in order to assess why Noam Chomsky has come to mean so much to so many and what he may mean to generations to come.

Robert F. Barsky is Professor of English, Comparative Literature, French and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent (MIT Press), Constructing a Productive Other, Introduction a la theorie litteraire and Arguing and Justifying. He is currently completing a book on Zelling Harris, for The MIT Press.
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