The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism

Couverture
University of Chicago Press, 15 févr. 1992 - 343 pages
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.

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Table des matières

Ascetic Linguistics
3
Technique and the Self
19
The Signs of Temptation
45
Narrative on Trial
67
Two Discipline and Desire in Augustines Confessions
89
Grünewalds
135
Four Philosophy and the Resistance to Asceticism
201
Notes
271
Works Cited
297
Index
315
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À propos de l'auteur (1992)

Geoffrey Galt Harpham is visiting scholar and senior fellow of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and former director of the National Humanities Center. He is the author of nine books, including, most recently, The Humanities and the Dream ofAmerica.

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