A Phenomenology of the Alien
Encounters with the Weird and Inscrutable Other
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:22nd May '25
£34.99
This title is due to be published on 22nd May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£145.00(9781032856292)
A Phenomenology of the Alien: Encounters with the Weird and Inscrutable Other considers both literal and figurative experiences of the alien from a psychological, psychoanalytic, and philosophical perspective.
Throughout the book, the authors wrestle with the unexplained, ineffable, unspeakable, sublime, uncanny, abject, and Miéville’s abcanny. This collection provides phenomenologies of encounters with the inscrutably alien from lights in the sky, dark corners of Weird fictional landscapes, architecture, technology, or the clinical symptom. The chapters examine fictional and non-fictional encounters with what exceeds the capacity to “make sense,” taking a new approach to the topic of alterity and inviting the reader to examine how these encounters reflect our contemporary condition culturally, individually, clinically, theologically, and philosophically.
Bridging cultural, psychoanalytic, literary, clinical, media, and religious studies, the novel approaches in this volume will be of interest to students and scholars alike.
“Picking up this volume is the equivalent of being seated in a darkening movie theatre only to realize that you are sitting alongside both many of the luminaries of Western thought—Plato, Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Kristeva, Heidegger, Freud—and many of the masters of science fiction and horror cinema—Kubrick, Spielberg, Lucas, Burton, Nolan, et al. This book thrums with life—of both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial varieties (!)—weaving together theological, philosophical, socio-cultural and psychoanalytic lines of discussion with our quest for, and engagement with, the many forms of that which is “intractably alien.” It redefines what can be achieved philosophically, conceptually, when the psychological humanities thoroughly immerses itself in the cultural archives of science fiction and horror.”
~Derek Hook, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Duquesne University, Author of Six Moments in Lacan (2017)
“This volume explores the question of aliens—real and imaginary—with compelling and original scholarship. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue with philosophy, literature, cinema, and religion, it interrogates the uncanny phenomenon of the stranger as human, animal, landscape, and divine. Ranging from mythology and magic to technology and politics, its questioning of the limits of the human is both topical and timely.”
~Richard Kearney, PhD, Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy, Boston College
ISBN: 9781032856278
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 453g
192 pages