| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 243 pages) |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-239) and index. |
| Summary |
"Beginning amidst the tombs of the 'dead' God, and the crematoria at Auschwitz, this book confronts the Nietzschean legacy through a Platonic focus. Plato argues in the Phaedrus that writing is dangerous because it can neither select its audience nor call upon its author to the rescue. Yet, he transgresses this ethical imperative in the Republic which has proved defenceless against use and abuse in the ideological foundation of totalitarian regimes. Burke goes on to analyse the dangerous games which Plato and Nietzsche played with posterity. At issue is how authors may protect against 'deviant readings' and assess 'the risk of writing'. Burke recommends an ethic of 'discursive containment'." "The ethical question is the question of our times. Within critical theory, it has focused on the act of reading. This study reverses the terms of inquiry to analyse the ethical composition of the act of writing. What responsibility does an author bear for his legacy? Do 'catastrophic' misreadings of authors (e.g. Plato, Nietzsche) testify to authorial recklessness? These and other questions are the starting-point for a theory of authorial ethics which will be further developed in a forthcoming book on the interanimating thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida." "Continuing the mission of the 'returned author' begun in his pioneering book The Death and Return of the Author, Burke recommends the 'law of genre' as a contract drawn up between author and reader to establish ethical responsibility. Criticism, under this contract, becomes an ethical realm and realm of the ethical."--Jacket. |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Access |
Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL |
| System Details |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
| Processing Action |
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Contents |
COPYRIGHT; Contents; Acknowledgements; Key to References and Abbreviations; Prologue: Friedrich Nietzsche in Auschwitz, or the Posthumous Return of the Author; Introduction: The Responsibilities of the Writer; 1 The Ethical Opening; 2 The Ethics of Legacy; 3 Signature and Authorship in the Phaedrus; 4 The Textual Estate: Nietzsche and Authorial Responsibility; Conclusion: Creativity versus Containment: The Aesthetic Defence; Bibliography; Index of Names. |
| Subject |
Authorship -- Moral and ethical aspects.
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Authors and readers.
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Criticism -- Moral and ethical aspects.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- Semiotics & Theory.
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Authors and readers. (OCoLC)fst00821738
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Authorship -- Moral and ethical aspects.
(OCoLC)fst00822462
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Criticism -- Moral and ethical aspects.
(OCoLC)fst00883745
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Burke, Sean, 1961- Ethics of writing. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, ©2008 0748618309 9780748618309 (OCoLC)61176680 |
| ISBN |
9780748628865 (electronic bk.) |
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074862886X (electronic bk.) |
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