The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism.
Title:
The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism.
Author:
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt.
ISBN:
9780226316901
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (344 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I. The Ideology of Asceticism -- 1. Ascetic Linguistics -- 2. Technique and the Self -- 3. The Signs of Temptation -- 4. Narrative on Trial -- II. Discipline and Desire in Augustine's Confessions -- 1. The Language of Conversion -- 2. Profit and Loss in the Ascesis of Discourse -- 3. The Fertile World -- III. A Passion of Representation: Grünewald's Isenheim Altar -- 1. Anonymity, Modernity, and the Medieval -- 2. Conceptual Narrative -- 3. A Passion of Representation -- 4. Asceticism and the Sublime -- IV. Philosophy and the Resistance to Asceticism -- 1. Nietzsche: Weakness and the Will to Power -- 2. Saint Foucault -- V. The Ascetics of Interpretation -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index.
Abstract:
In this bold interdisciplinary work, Geoffrey Galt Harpham argues that asceticism has played a major role in shaping Western ideas of the body, writing, ethics, and aesthetics. He suggests that we consider the ascetic as "the 'cultural' element in culture," and presents a close analysis of works by Athanasius, Augustine, Matthias, Grünewald, Nietzsche, Foucault, and other thinkers as proof of the extent of asceticism's resources. Harpham demonstrates the usefulness of his findings by deriving from asceticism a "discourse of resistance," a code of interpretation ultimately more generous and humane than those currently available to us.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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