Michel de Certeau

Dr. Jeremy Ahearne, University of Warwick

• List of Abbreviations. Introduction.Part I: Implications:.1. The Historiographical Operation.2. Interpretation and its Archaeology.Part II: Fables:.3. Voices in the Text.4. Mystics.Part III: Strategies and Tactics:.5. Strategic Operations.6. Turns and Diversions.Conclusion.Notes.Bibliography.Index.

"This book is a jewel of an introduction to one of the most potent and enduring thinkers of our time." Professor Tom Conley, Harvard University "Polity is to be congratulated for its vision ... an important victory for the still fledgling field of de Certeau studies." Social Semiotics "A coherent and faithful account of Certeau's thought on the methodology of properly conducted enquiries into social organization ... it grapples conscientiously with the intricacy of thought and language to which modern French thinkers have often felt it necessary to have recourse ... contains often lucid and penetrating insights." The Heythrop Journal "The first full length study [with] an overview of recurring themes that will be of interest to those new to this complex thinker and to those already versed in some aspects. We are taken through a detailed questioning of the very possibilities of knowledge and of communication with others." Times Higher Education Supplement "[An] excellent ... first full-length study." Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory "This generous, beautifully argued work of synthesis and interpretation should lead us to Certeau's own writings." American Historical Review "Ahearne has succeeded in presenting us with a clearly written and well argued text, without ever reducing De Certeau to the rhetorical figure of a 'key thinker'... Ahearne brings De Certeau, as it were, back to life." The Sociological Review