Sade's Sensibilities
Kate Parker editor Norbert Sclippa editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bucknell University Press
Published:20th Nov '14
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£81.00(9781611486469)
Sade’s Sensibilities tells a new story of one of the most enduring and controversial figures in European literature. Blending ideas about subjectivity, identity and natural philosophy with politics and pornography, D.A.F. de Sade has fascinated writers and readers for two hundred years, and his materialist account of the human condition has been widely influential in post-structuralism, nihilism, and feminism. This new collection of essays considers Sade’s Enlightenment legacy, both within and beyond the narratives of radicalism and aberration that have historically marked the study of his oeuvre. From different points of view, these essays argue that Sade engaged with and influenced traditional Enlightenment paradigms—particularly those related to sensibility, subjectivity, and philosophy—as much as he resisted them. They thus recover a Sade more relevant, even foundational to our twenty-first century understanding of modernity, selfhood, and community. In Sade’s Sensibilities Sade is no longer a solitary, peripheral radical, but an Enlightenment philosopher in his own right.
Published to commemorate the bicentennial of D. A. F. de Sade's death, this collection of essays argues that the 21st century deserves a more complete picture of Sade. Parker and Sclippa present the essays in two sections: 'Thinking, Feeling, Reading Sade' and 'In Pursuit of D. A. F. de Sade.' Part 1 focuses on common themes in Sadean scholarship—apathy, perversion, obscenity, and the carnivalesque. The contributors demonstrate that Sade uses these themes as a means of political critique of the Revolution, rather than simply to titillate. The essays in part 2 present Sade as an individual who was firmly part of the Enlightenment, rather than lurking on the boundaries. Moreover, in this section, the authors argue that in addition to being a product of his era, Sade's writings on materialism, medicine, and sexuality have the ability to reach across centuries, influencing discussions in the 21st century. As Parker notes in her introduction, 'Sade is both curious … and a curiosity,' an author who continues to provoke. This book offers a compelling collection of writings attesting to the enduring offerings of the divin marquis. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *
ISBN: 9781611486483
Dimensions: 215mm x 143mm x 16mm
Weight: 290g
202 pages