McClellan Reading Chaucer After Auschwitz

Sovereign Power and Bare Life
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-137-54879-5
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 123 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: The New Middle Ages

Drawing on the work of Holocaust writer Primo Levi and political philosopher Giorgio Agamben McClellan introduces a critical turn in our reading of Chaucer. He argues that the unprecedented event of the Holocaust, which witnessed the total degradation and extermination of human beings, irrevocably changes how we read literature from the past. McClellan gives a thoroughgoing reading of the
Man of Law’s Tale
, widely regarded as one of Chaucer’s most difficult tales, interpreting it as a meditation on the horrors of sovereign power. He shows how Chaucer, through the figuration of Custance, dramatically depicts the destructive effects of power on the human subject. McClellan’s intervention, which he calls “reading-history-as-ethical-meditation,” places reception history in the context of a reception ethics and holds the promise of changing the way we read traditional texts.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

McClellan, William

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1 Political Chaucer.- Chapter 2 The 
Man of Law’s Tale
: Sovereign Abandonment of the Subject.- Chapter 3 First Movement: Marriage and Exile.- Chapter 4 Second Movement: Destitution of the Subject.- Chapter 5 Third Movement: Return and Restitution.- Chapter 6 Interpretation: Critique of Sovereign and the Exemplarity of the Suffering Subject.- Works Cited.- Index.- Notes.

Über Autor(innen)

William McClellan is Associate Professor of English at Baruch College, City University of New York, USA. He has written articles on medieval literature, the Holocaust, Giorgio Agamben, and political theory.