How andwhy did experience and knowledge become separated? Is it possible totalk of an infancy of experience, a 'œdumb' experience? For WalterBenjamin, the 'œpoverty of experience' was a characteristic ofmodernity, originating in the catastrophe of the First World War. ForGiorgio Agamben, the Italian editor of Benjamin's complete works, thedestruction of experience no longer needs catastrophes: daily life inany modern city will suffice.Agamben'sprofound and radical exploration of language, infancy, and everydaylife traces concepts of experience through Kant, Hegel, Husserl andBenveniste. In doing so he elaborates a theory of infancy that throwsnew light on a number of major themes in contemporary thought: theanthropological opposition between nature and culture; the linguisticopposition between speech and language; the birth of the subject andthe appearance of the unconscious. Agamben goes on to consider time andhistory; the Marxist notion of base and superstructure (via a carefulreading of the famous Adorno'Benjamin correspondence on Baudelaire'sParis); and the difference between rituals and games.Beautifullywritten, erudite and provocative, these essays will be of greatinterest to students of philosophy, linguistics, anthropology andpolitics.

Giorgio Agamben is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Venice. His works include The Coming Community, Homo Sacer and State of Exception.