Jonathan Strauss
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823251322
- eISBN:
- 9780823252954
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251322.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
In Private Lives/Public Deaths, Jonathan Strauss shows how Sophocles's tragedy Antigone crystalized the political, intellectual, and aesthetic forces of an entire historical moment – fifth-century ...
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In Private Lives/Public Deaths, Jonathan Strauss shows how Sophocles's tragedy Antigone crystalized the political, intellectual, and aesthetic forces of an entire historical moment – fifth-century Athens – into one idea: the value of a single, living person. That idea existed, however, only as a powerful but unconcious desire. Drawing on classical studies, Hegel, and contemporary philosophical interpretations of this pivotal drama, Strauss argues that Antigone's tragedy, and perhaps all classical tragedy, represents the failure to satisfy this desire. To the extent that the value of a living individual remains an open question, what Sophocles attempted to imagine still escapes our understanding. Antigone is, in this sense, a text not from the past, but from our future.Less
In Private Lives/Public Deaths, Jonathan Strauss shows how Sophocles's tragedy Antigone crystalized the political, intellectual, and aesthetic forces of an entire historical moment – fifth-century Athens – into one idea: the value of a single, living person. That idea existed, however, only as a powerful but unconcious desire. Drawing on classical studies, Hegel, and contemporary philosophical interpretations of this pivotal drama, Strauss argues that Antigone's tragedy, and perhaps all classical tragedy, represents the failure to satisfy this desire. To the extent that the value of a living individual remains an open question, what Sophocles attempted to imagine still escapes our understanding. Antigone is, in this sense, a text not from the past, but from our future.
Deborah Christie and Sarah Juliet Lauro (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an ...
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The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on deep analytical engagement with diverse kinds of texts, this book addresses some of the more unlikely venues where zombies are found while providing the reader with a classic overview of the zombie's folkloric and cinematic history. What has the zombie metaphor meant in the past? Why does it continue to be so prevalent in our culture? Where others have looked at the zombie as an allegory for humanity's inner machinations or claimed the zombie as capitalist critique, this book seeks to provide an archaeology of the zombie-tracing its lineage from Haiti, mapping its various cultural transformations, and suggesting the post-humanist direction in which the zombie is ultimately heading. Approaching the zombie from many different points of view, the chapters here look across history and across media. Though they represent various theoretical perspectives, the whole makes a cohesive argument: The zombie has not just evolved within narratives; it has evolved in a way that transforms narrative. This book announces a new post-zombie, even before the boundaries of this rich and mysterious myth have been completely charted.Less
The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on deep analytical engagement with diverse kinds of texts, this book addresses some of the more unlikely venues where zombies are found while providing the reader with a classic overview of the zombie's folkloric and cinematic history. What has the zombie metaphor meant in the past? Why does it continue to be so prevalent in our culture? Where others have looked at the zombie as an allegory for humanity's inner machinations or claimed the zombie as capitalist critique, this book seeks to provide an archaeology of the zombie-tracing its lineage from Haiti, mapping its various cultural transformations, and suggesting the post-humanist direction in which the zombie is ultimately heading. Approaching the zombie from many different points of view, the chapters here look across history and across media. Though they represent various theoretical perspectives, the whole makes a cohesive argument: The zombie has not just evolved within narratives; it has evolved in a way that transforms narrative. This book announces a new post-zombie, even before the boundaries of this rich and mysterious myth have been completely charted.