This Thing of Darkness
Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness
Published on 1. January 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
178 pages
978-90-420-1138-0 (ISBN)
Description
Written across the disciplines of art history, literature, philosophy, sociology, and theology, the ten essays comprising the collection all insist on multidimensional definitions of evil.
Taking its title from a moment in Shakespeare's Tempest when Prospero acknowledges his responsibility for Caliban, this collection explores the necessarily ambivalent relationship between humanity and evil. To what extent are a given society's definitions of evil self-serving? Which figures are marginalized in the process of identifying evil? How is humanity itself implicated in the production of evil? Is evil itself something fundamentally human? These questions, indicative of the kinds of issues raised in this collection, seem all the more pressing in light of recent world events.
The ten essays were originally presented at the First Global Conference on Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness, held in March 2000 in Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
Taking its title from a moment in Shakespeare's Tempest when Prospero acknowledges his responsibility for Caliban, this collection explores the necessarily ambivalent relationship between humanity and evil. To what extent are a given society's definitions of evil self-serving? Which figures are marginalized in the process of identifying evil? How is humanity itself implicated in the production of evil? Is evil itself something fundamentally human? These questions, indicative of the kinds of issues raised in this collection, seem all the more pressing in light of recent world events.
The ten essays were originally presented at the First Global Conference on Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness, held in March 2000 in Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Publishing group
Brill
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-420-1138-0 (9789042011380)
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
Content
List of Illustrations
Rob FISHER: Editorial Foreword
Richard Paul HAMILTON: Preface
Acknowledgements
ONE Katri LEHTINEN: Twentieth-Century Vampire Literature: Intimations of Evil and Power
TWO Salwa GHALY: Evil Encounters with "Others" in Tayeb Salih and Toni Morrison. The Case of Mustafa Saeed and Sula Peace
THREE A Visual Theology of Evil and Redemption? Watt's Eve Trilogy and Burne-Jones's Altarpiece of The Nativity
FOUR David H. FISHER: Or Image of that Horror? Imagining Radical Evil
FIVE Richard Paul HAMILTON: Hier ist kein Warum? Evil at the Limits of Understanding
SIX Diana MEDLICOTT: Condemned to Artifice and Prevented from Being a Pirate: How Prisoners Convicted the Terrible Crimes Recognize Themselves in Discourse
SEVEN Deirdre BURKE: The Apostasy of the Baptized: Christians and the Holocaust
EIGHT Sandeep SINGH CHOHAN: The Exorcist: Personification of Human Wickedness or Upholder of Religious Duties?
NINE Rob FISHER: Wandering the Heath: Niebuhr and the Need for Realism
TEN Jones IRWIN: Prohibition and Transgression - Georges Bataille and the Possibility of Affirming Evil
Contributors
Index
Rob FISHER: Editorial Foreword
Richard Paul HAMILTON: Preface
Acknowledgements
ONE Katri LEHTINEN: Twentieth-Century Vampire Literature: Intimations of Evil and Power
TWO Salwa GHALY: Evil Encounters with "Others" in Tayeb Salih and Toni Morrison. The Case of Mustafa Saeed and Sula Peace
THREE A Visual Theology of Evil and Redemption? Watt's Eve Trilogy and Burne-Jones's Altarpiece of The Nativity
FOUR David H. FISHER: Or Image of that Horror? Imagining Radical Evil
FIVE Richard Paul HAMILTON: Hier ist kein Warum? Evil at the Limits of Understanding
SIX Diana MEDLICOTT: Condemned to Artifice and Prevented from Being a Pirate: How Prisoners Convicted the Terrible Crimes Recognize Themselves in Discourse
SEVEN Deirdre BURKE: The Apostasy of the Baptized: Christians and the Holocaust
EIGHT Sandeep SINGH CHOHAN: The Exorcist: Personification of Human Wickedness or Upholder of Religious Duties?
NINE Rob FISHER: Wandering the Heath: Niebuhr and the Need for Realism
TEN Jones IRWIN: Prohibition and Transgression - Georges Bataille and the Possibility of Affirming Evil
Contributors
Index