
Declensions of the Self
A Bestiary of Modernity
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published on 27. August 2008
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-1-84718-726-0 (ISBN)
Description
This work is a collective reflection on the modern self as a narrative. Modernity as a metamorphic conglomeration of permeating discourses, new practices and institutional forms, a historical unfolding of centrifugal and centripetal discursive dynamics of regulation and normalization offers limitless grounds for a critical investigation. The modern self, both as the revelation of the inner self and as a reflection of the collective, arises from the dialogical interplay within the intersubjective communicative space of social discourse.The bestiary proposed in this series of articles attempts to rethink the spectacle consisting of modern dichotomies by which the self is declined along ontological, metaphysical, and ethical premises: the real and the ideal, the said and the unsaid, the rational and the irrational, the bound and the free, the familiar and the exotic, the universal and the particular, self and world.The reader is therefore encouraged to engage in a multiple reading of the articles presented in this collection. As individual scholarly pieces of inquiry, these articles provide thoughtful insights into the inexhaustible topic of modernity and the modern subject-they tell stories of the past, the present, and of a prospective future.As academic works, however, they also reflect and/or unsettle disciplinary paradigms and scholarly practices, from which they acquire legitimacy and visibility; they conform, apply, reconfigure and/or experiment with new grounds by borrowing from an eclectic mix of various thinkers, their tools, and their axiomatic propositions that constitute their theoretical and critical apparatus.This exercise is ultimately an introspective journey in which we are placed not only as the spectator-the one who gazes through the bars-but also the spectacle-the beast subject to the gaze-finding itself in a predicament of which the subject, itself, is the architect.
Reviews / Votes
'Declensions of the Self takes the critical reader on a deeply interdisciplinary foray into that bestiary of the 'other' that populates modern narratives of the self [.] this is the rare multi-author volume where the whole outweighs the parts through an ongoing insistence on critical dialogism.'Richard Cavell, Professor of EnglishUniversity of British Columbia'This volume exemplifies exceedingly well the synergies of multi / inter - disciplinary collectives which are arising within the 21st century academy [.]Scholars and students will find this book a sometimes challenging but always illuminating and insightful volume. This is cutting edge analysis of the theorization of the self within multiple cultural contexts and perspectives. It is a solidly documented volume in which theory and cultural analysis are inseparable.'Donald Bruce, Professor of French and Dean of ArtsUniversity of GuelphMore details
Edition
Unabridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Newcastle upon Tyne
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Unabridged edition
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 212 mm
Width: 148 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84718-726-0 (9781847187260)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2009
1st Edition
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
€106.79
Available for download
Persons
Jean-Jacques Defert is a PhD candidate in Modern Languages and Cultural Studies and Izaak Walton Killam scholar at the University of Alberta. His interests lie primarily in cultural metaphors and paradigms, phenomena of permeability and migrations between discursive fields, domains of knowledge and disciplines. First author of a forthcoming monograph "Recits du 19eme siecle: Structure et contenu historiographique au Canada" (Presses de l'Universite Laval, 2009). Former publications include "Rethinking the Present - Archaeology of an Idea" (Kakanian, 2004).Trevor Tchir is a PhD candidate in Political Theory at the University of Alberta. He is a Canadian Graduate Scholar and Izaak Walton Killam Scholar. His thesis focuses on Hannah Arendt's theory of disclosure of the "who" in political action. His previous research at the University of Ottawa centered on Charles Taylor's Best Account Principle and his expressive theory of language and reason.Dan Webb is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Alberta. His interests lie primarily in the field of Continental political thought, and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. His most recent publication is entitled "If Adorno isn't the Devil, it's Because He's a Jew: Lyotard's Misreading of Adorno Through Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus" (forthcoming, Philosophy and Social Criticism 2008).