Giving Way
Thoughts on Unappreciated Dispositions
Published on 15. October 2019
248 pages
978-1-5036-1084-2 (ISBN)
Available for download
Description
In a world that promotes assertion, agency, and empowerment, this book challenges us to revalue a range of actions and attitudes that have come to be disregarded or dismissed as merely passive. Mercy, resignation, politeness, restraint, gratitude, abstinence, losing well, apologizing, taking care: today, such behaviors are associated with negativity or lack. But the capacity to give way is better understood as positive action, at once intricate and demanding. Moving from intra-human common courtesies, to human-animal relations, to the global civility of human-inhuman ecological awareness, the book's argument unfolds on progressively larger scales. In reminding us of the existential threat our drives pose to our own survival, Steven Connor does not merely champion a family of behaviors; he shows that we are more adept practitioners of them than we realize. At a time when it is on the wane, Giving Way offers a powerful defense of civility, the versatile human capacity to deflect aggression into sociability and to exercise power over power itself.
Reviews / Votes
"Can one be effusively enthusiastic or unreservedly supportive of a book that asks its audience to exercise restraint? Connor helped me see why civility might be one of the most radical things we can aspire to in the contemporary world. Giving Way gets to the root of what it means to be an ethical human being."-David Kishik, Emerson College "If anyone can persuade us of the merits of abstaining and refraining, holding back and backing down, it is Steven Connor, one of the most consistently interesting critics writing today. Displaying the author's characteristic blend of learnedness and verve, Giving Way is a bold, wide-ranging, and highly original work-a dazzling exercise in what he dubs cultural phenomenology."-Rita Felski, University of Virginia "Steven Connor once again demonstrates his ability to produce an erudite study that reveals the historical, literary, cultural, and philosophical dimensions of a seemingly mundane topic, examining human interaction and 'civility' from different, and often delightfully surprising, points of view."-Benet Davetian, University of Prince Edward Island "Connor's book, in my opinion, would be spellbinding for scholars working in performance studies as a field that endlessly frames, reframes and unframes its scope and dispositions by finding and giving way....Giving Way serves as a beacon of hope in the harsh competitiveness of a neoliberal world in which people cannot not do."-Mohammad Mehdi Kimagari, Critical Inquiry "This book is, at its core, about acting with reserve and within limits, and it has the rare distinction of being appropriate for readers of all stripes....An invaluable resource, particularly for those interested in moral philosophy and psychology. Essential."-S. E. Forschler, CHOICEMore details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
ISBN-13
978-1-5036-1084-2 (9781503610842)
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
Book
10/2019
Stanford University Press
€121.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Steven Connor is Grace 2 Professor of English, University of Cambridge.
Content
1. Modulating
2. Minding Your Tongue
3. Backing Down
4. Refraining
5. Apologizing
6. Losing Well
7. Taking Care
Conclusion: Ministering
2. Minding Your Tongue
3. Backing Down
4. Refraining
5. Apologizing
6. Losing Well
7. Taking Care
Conclusion: Ministering
