The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism - Paperback

by Geoffrey Galt Harpham (Author)

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.

Author Biography

Geoffrey Galt Harpham, professor of English at Tulane University, is the author of Getting It Right: Language, Literature and Ethics, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and On the Grotesque: Strategies of Contradiction in Art and Literature.