1st Edition

The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault A Genealogy of the 'Confessing Animal'

By Chloe Taylor Copyright 2009
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    Drawing on the work of Foucault and Western confessional writings, this book challenges the transhistorical and commonsense views of confession as an innate impulse resulting in the psychological liberation of the confessing subject. Instead, confessional desire is argued to be contingent and constraining, and alternatives to confessional subjectivity are explored.

    List of Figures

    Acknowledgments

    Introduction

    Chapter One: Confession from Antiquity to the Counter-Reformation

    Chapter Two: Confession and Modern Subjectivity

    Chapter Three: Psychoanalysis

    Chapter Four: Confessing the Other

    Chapter Five: Alternatives to Confession

    Conclusions

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Chloƫ Taylor is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellowship from McGill University. Professor Taylor has published articles in journals such as Philosophy Today, Postmodern Culture and the Journal of Modern Literature. She is currently working on a book on Foucault and sex crimes, as well as undertaking research on animal ethics, feminism, and literature.