Raids on Human Consciousness: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence

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University of South Carolina Press, 1998 - Literary Criticism - 275 pages
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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.

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Page 64
Again , the discussion of violence is not an issue of means and ends but of
demonstration : “ As regards man , he is ... and ends of violence have necessarily
been discussed , and he is free to characterize “ mythic ” and “ divine violence .
Page 160
Yippie proverb THE FANTASY LIFE OF THE MOVEMENT We might be able to
situate the 1960s by reference to that decade ' s broad discussion of the place
and function of political and social violence , a discussion that forms a defining ...
Page 210
I want , as a reminder , once again to orient this discussion and what follows in
terms of what I have argued to be its matrix ... The discussions are everywhere
burdened with the history of violence by which states in the service of capital
have ...

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Contents

6
29
Satire Georges Sorel
30
Modern Text
71
Copyright

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

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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
  
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