This new collection of challenging literary studies plays with a foundational definition of Western culture: the word become flesh. But the "word become flesh" is not, or no longer, a theological already-given. It is a millennial goal or telos toward which each text strives. Both witty and immensely erudite, Jacques Ranciere leads the critical reader through a maze of arrivals toward the moment, perhaps always suspended, when the word finds its flesh. That is what he, a valiant and good-humored companion to these texts, goes questing for through seven essays examining a wide variety of familiar and unfamiliar works. A text is always a commencement, the word setting out on its excursions through the implausible vicissitudes of narrative and the bizarre phantasmagorias of imagery, Don Quixote's unsent letter reaching us through generous Balzac, lovely Rimbaud, demonic Althusser. The word is on its way to an incarnation that always lies ahead of the writer and the reader both, in this anguished democracy of language where the word is always taking on its flesh.

雅克·朗西埃，1940年生于阿尔及尔，当代法国最重要的哲学家之一，巴黎第八大学哲学系教授。早年与阿尔都塞等合著《阅读〈资本论〉》，后转向对19世纪法国工人运动的档案研究和对传统教育理念的批判。1990年代以后，专注于美学、政治、社会史、电影和文学等领域的研究。著有《劳工之夜》、《哲学家及其贫困》、《政治的边缘》、《歧义》、《可感性的分配：美学与政治》等。

朱康，文学博士，现任教于华东师范大学，主要从事中国现当代文学和批评理论研究。译有《根本恶》（合译，即出）等。

朱羽，文学博士，现任教于上海大学中文系，研究方向为20世纪中国文学与思想及美学批评理论，译有《野性唯物主义》（合译）、《全球化与文化政治》（合译）等。

黄锐杰，北京大学中文系博士生，译有《瞬间与教师——基尔克果〈哲学片段〉中的问题》、《恶与民主政治的败坏》等文。