Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and ViolenceHowever 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. |
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... claims . From Petro- nius to Erma Bombeck , from Günter Grass to Joe Bob Briggs , satirists mock the claim that all shall be well or any manner of things shall be well . Satire deploys what is an almost classic instance of the scapegoat ...
... claims and consequently throws his hat into the arena of pure possibility , a possibility introduced to the social order by violence . Hannah Arendt in her turn insists on the instrumental nature of violence , arguing that it therefore ...
... claims he makes about the universality of rage in the modern world , Mailer knows how ephem- eral ( and impotent ) rage is today . And this knowledge — that violence is , in fact , ineffectual - is both the source of his rage — and what ...
Contents
Satire Georges Sorel | 30 |
Anarchism and | 71 |
Violence and Modernism | 117 |
Copyright | |
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Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence Arthur F. Redding No preview available - 1998 |