Skirting the Ethical

Carol Jacobs

Published by Stanford University Press 2008

Skirting the Ethical

Carol Jacobs

In the series Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503626928

Overview
Contents

About this book

Skirting the Ethical offers highly original readings of six works, each noted for its politico-ethical stance. The first four (Sophocles' Antigone, Plato's Symposium and Republic and Hamann's "Aesthetica in nuce") have a recognized and honored place in the canon. The last two, Sebald's The Emigrants and Jane Campion's film The Piano, are exemplary for our contemporary scene. Nevertheless, the straightforward assumptions about justice, divine and state power, the good, and identity politics that every reader or viewer inevitably comes upon are disrupted when one takes into account the role of language: both the way in which language is talked about and the way in which it performs. What emerges is a non-prescriptive ethics of another order that offers a resistance to power and simplistic conceptualizations of truth, an emancipation from the "must-be" that implies an ever-to-be-renewed renegotiation—a responsability that has much to do with the act of critique or interpretation.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Prologue: Skirting the Ethical Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
1. Dusting Antigone: Sophocles’ Antigone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Virtue Inside Out: Plato’s Symposium Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
3. Subversions of the Political: Plato’s Republic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
4. Hamann Is a Nomadic Writer: “Aesthetica in nuce” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
5. What Does It Mean to Count? W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
6. Playing Jane Campion’s Piano: Politically Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Illustrations
- Other: 1 figure, 4 illustrations

eBook

Published: January 21, 2022
ISBN: 9781503626928