A Philosophy of Shame

A Revolutionary Emotion

Frédéric Gros author Andrew James Bliss translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Verso Books

Publishing:20th May '25

£16.99

This title is due to be published on 20th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

A Philosophy of Shame cover

An original reflection on shame as the central feeling of our age - the expression of an anger that is the necessary condition for new struggles

Can shame become a source of political strength? Faced with injustice, growing inequality and systemic violence, we cry out in shame. We feel ashamed of obscene wealth amid wider deprivation. We feel ashamed of humanity for its ruthless and relentless exploitation of the earth. We feel ashamed of the racism and sexism that permeate society and our everyday lives.

This difficult emotion is not just sadness or a withdrawal into oneself, nor is it a paralysing sense of inadequacy. As Frédéric Gros argues in A Philosophy of Shame, it arises when our perception of reality rejects passivity and resignation and instead embraces imagination. Shame thus becomes the expression of an anger that is a powerful, transformative force -one that assumes a radical character.

In dialogue with authors such as Primo Levi, Annie Ernaux, Virginie Despentes and James Baldwin, Gros explores a concept that is still little understood in its anthropological, moral, psychological and political depths. Shame is a revolu­tionary sentiment because it lies at the foundation of any path of subjective recognition, transformation and struggle.

In this elegant, psychologically sharp and richly referenced analysis, Gros shows us how shame, as Marx wrote, 'is already a revolution of its kind'. In chapters that weave deftly between politics, literature and psychoanalysis, he leads us carefully through the familiar sources of shame (social contempt, moral violence, bodily disgust) to its collective and public iterations (shame at one's people, or even one's species). He shows us how it is through embracing shame as a passionate engagement with the world that one escapes its melancholic and disfiguring effects. -- Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism

ISBN: 9781804294154

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 250g

176 pages