1st Edition

Bloodrites of the Post-Structuralists Word Flesh and Revolution

By Anne Norton Copyright 2002
    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    How do you write history when it's no longer linear? In Bloodrites of the Post-Structuralists, respected political theorist Anne Norton reminds us of the real interplay between words (laws, scriptures, myths, and texts), and the world of flesh. Drawing from sources as diverse as foundational myths from Sarah in the bible, Marat in his death bath, and thinkers like Hegel and Foucault, Norton reinterprets the relationship between word and flesh and places it in historical context. The French and English Revolutions, as well as the period of anti-colonialism and post-colonialism are used to frame her discussion of word and body, and their historical significance.

    Introduction: A Shape of Life Grown Old Part I. 1. Power in the Blood 2. Closed Body, Open Mind 3. The Word, the Flesh, the colonized 4. Hand and Eye 5. Open Bodies, Closed Minds Part II. 6. Writing Over Blood 7. The Man of Blood and the Army of Scripture 8. The Jews of Change Alley 9. Dutch Williams Part III. 10. Revolutionary Memory 11. The Death of Marat 12. The Perverse Authority of Writing Part IV. 13. The Sacrifice 14. The Fire Next Time 15. Semele, or The Enlightenment in Flames Part V. 16. The Laughter of Demeter 17. The Laughter of Sarah 18. The Annunciation, or the Text in the Womb 19. The Circumcised

    Biography

    Anne Norton is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the founding co-editor of the journal, Theory and Event.

    "I am a long-standing admirer of Anne Norton, who is a courageous and brilliant writer."-Homi Bhabha, Harvard University."
    "A remarkable work of wide-ranging learning, subtle intelligence and capacious sympathies."-Uday Mehta, Amherst College."
    "[Norton's] book is thus part of a politcal project, another contribution to the deconstruction of the order." -- Perspectives on Politics