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 145
The common prejudice that paints anarchists as drunken and shiftless seems to
have survived more or less intact , combined with an “ existential ” view of
violence which excludes anarchist politics . Naturally enough , Hemingway
exemplifies ...
Page 199
It is important , I think , that the phantasm was theorized in 1969 , for it seems to
describe the locale of a revolutionary desire apart from but inextricably linked to
the political sphere . Deleuze is theorizing the effect of a collapsed sign upon the
 ...
Page 202
( 11 ) Though I have argued that Deleuze and Guattari are being somewhat
evasive , these latter seem weird charges to lay ... Land sets himself up as the
champion of revolutionary disorder and seems to think any cautions against
desire will ...

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Contents

6
29
Satire Georges Sorel
30
Modern Text
71
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

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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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