Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence

Front Cover
University of South Carolina Press, 1998 - Literary Criticism - 275 pages
0 Reviews
However one looks at violence -- as an instrument of bureaucracy or ideology; as a product of racial, gender, or class antagonisms; or as the inevitable result of power politics -- it is an integral part of every social system and is one of the most pressing problems of our tortured century.

In Raids on Human Consciousness Arthur Redding examines the contention that violence, be it the mass product of revolutionary uprising or a private sadomasochistic indulgence, may be taken to instill in those who commit it the capacity for radical change.

Conscious that mainstream theory considers violence deviant, a departure from the normal equilibrium of social and aesthetic structures, while other critiques take it to be integral to any dynamic system, Redding begins with the anarchist inquiry into the relationship of violence to the imaginary representation of modern communities. He explores the "public images" of anarchism in literature and popular culture and emphasizes the diverse strategies by which modern writers encounter, derive, deflect, and manipulate fantasies of political violence.

Redding recognizes that language fails when confronted with the extreme suffering of human bodies. Acknowledging that flesh is subject to war, torture, and everyday brutality -- violations to which language can never do justice -- he nonetheless finds it urgent to reclaim language on the far side of suffering.

From inside the book

 

Results 1-3 of 67

Page 24
What is omitted from such formulations , I argue , is an adequate assessment of
the natures and functions of violence itself ; an ... The theorist and literary critic
Christopher Caudwell ( 1938 ) argues against bourgeois pacifism and in favor of
a ...
Page 47
Piotr Hoffman argues in Violence in Modern Philosophy ( 1989 ) that violence at
the limits of the knowable is also of major importance to the projects of Kant and
Hegel and indeed , in Hegel , defines the situation of modernity . 12 Anthropology
 ...
Page 90
As Mark Seltzer argues in his chapter on the novel in Henry James and the Art of
Power ( 1984 ) , James ' s work pointedly argues that the blessed privileges of
culture and the freedom to observe and meditate from a distance are intimately ...

Where's the rest of this book?

What people are saying - Write a review

We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.

Contents

6
29
Satire Georges Sorel
30
Modern Text
71
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence
Arthur F. Redding
No preview available - 1998

Common terms and phrases

according action aesthetic already American anarchism anarchist argues attempt becomes body capitalism cause chapter character claims collective condemned Conrad consciousness consider constitute consumer course critical culture defining Deleuze depends desire discussion distinction dream economic effect effort emerges fantasy fiction figure force foreign given hand human idea ideological imagination insists instance involves Iron issue James language least Left less liberal limits lives March marks Marxism mass means merely misogyny moral movement myth narrative nature never novel organized perhaps political position possibility potential precisely present problem production question radical reading remains repression response revolutionary rhetoric satire seems sense social society Sorel speak structure struggle suffering suggests techniques textual theory things thought threat tion tradition truth turn utopian violence woman writing

References to this book

Bibliographic information

QR code for Raids on Human Consciousness
TitleRaids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence
Cultural frames, framing culture
Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence, Arthur F. Redding
AuthorArthur F. Redding
PublisherUniversity of South Carolina Press, 1998
Original fromthe University of California
Digitized19 Jun 2008
ISBN1570032300, 9781570032301
Length275 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / American / General
Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan