The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault: A Genealogy of the 'Confessing Animal' / Edition 1

by Chloe Taylor

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415963718
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/25/2008
Series:	Studies in Philosophy
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Chloë 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.

Table of Contents

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