__NOTOC__ Louis Marin (22 May 1931 – 29 October 1992) was a French philosopher,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

and art critic. He was born in

La Tronche La Tronche () is a commune in the Isère department, southeastern France. It is part of the Grenoble urban unit (agglomeration).France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He is usually referred to as a French post-structuralistic thinker. He attended the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and graduated with a Licence in Philosophy in 1952. His degree was followed in 1953 with an Agrégé in Philosophy and with a Docteur d'Etat in 1973. Marin taught at the

University of Nanterre Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Paris, France. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, ma ...

, Paris from 1967 to 1970, the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, San Diego from 1970 to 1974, Johns Hopkins University from 1974 to 1977, and finally at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris from 1977 to 1992. He was also an Associate of the Humanities Center at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

from 1985 until his death in 1992 in Paris. Marin was widely known for his work in a variety of areas:

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, philosophy,

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

, rhetoric,

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and institutional history and literary theory. Throughout his career, Marin's main intellectual focus was seventeenth-century French literature and art, particularly the works of Blaise Pascal, Perrault, Nicolas Poussin and

Philippe de Champaigne Philippe de Champaigne (; 26 May 1602 – 12 August 1674) was a Brabançon-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school. He was a founding member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, the premier art ...

. In addition, he published numerous articles on the visual arts, religious texts and utopias.

Education

* 1950 Admission to the Ecole Normale Superieure 2 * 1952 Degree in philosophy at the Sorbonne * 1953 Aggregation of Philosophy * 1973 Doctorate of State

Life

* 1961–1964 Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of France in Turkey * 1964–1967 Director of the French Institute in London * 1967–1970 Professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre and the EBU of Plastic Arts of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne * 1970–1974 University of San Diego, California * 1974–1977 Professor of French Literature at the Johns Hopkins University * 1978 Director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) * 1987 Director of the Centre for the Arts and language EHESS-CNRS

Works

Marin has written on the following topics: * Classicism and modernity * Signs of power, authority signs * Semiology of painting * Autobiography * Utopias and utopian spaces

Influence

Louis Marin has a lesser reputation than some of his contemporaries and friends, such as Jacques Derrida,

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and ...

and

Michel de Certeau Michel de Certeau (; 17 May 1925 – 9 January 1986) was a French Jesuit priest and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences as well as hermeneutics, semiotics, ethnology, and religion. He was kn ...

. Still, his classes and his work have exerted a profound influence on certain historians (Christian Jouhaud), art historians ( Daniel Arasse), and literary historians (Hélène Merlin-Kajman, Joan DeJean).

References

* ''Guide to the Louis Marin Offprints'', 1975–1999 * ''Revision Required - apologies'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Marin, Louis 1931 births 1992 deaths People from La Tronche 20th-century French philosophers French literary critics French literary theorists École Normale Supérieure alumni School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences faculty Poststructuralists French art historians