How have we thought “the body”? How can we think it anew? The body
of mortal creatures, the body politic, the body of letters and of
laws, the “mystical body of Christ”—all these (and others) are
incorporated in the word Corpus, the title and topic of Jean-Luc
Nancy’s masterwork. Corpus is a work of literary force at once
phenomenological, sociological, theological, and philosophical in its
multiple orientations and approaches. In thirty-six brief sections,
Nancy offers us at once an encyclopedia and a polemical
program—reviewing classical takes on the “corpus” from Plato,
Aristotle, and Saint Paul to Descartes, Hegel, Husserl, and Freud,
while demonstrating that the mutations (technological, biological, and
political) of our own culture have given rise to the need for a new
understanding of the body. He not only tells the story of this
cultural change but also explores the promise and responsibilities
that such a new understanding entails. The long-awaited English
translation is a bold, bravura rendering. To the title essay are added
five closely related recent pieces—including a commentary by Antonia
Birnbaum—dedicated in large part to the legacy of the “mind-body
problem” formulated by Descartes and the challenge it poses to
rethinking the ancient problems of the corpus. The last and most
poignant of these essays is “The Intruder,” Nancy’s
philosophical meditation on his heart transplant. The book also serves
as the opening move in Nancy’s larger project called “The
deconstruction of Christianity.”
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780823237517
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Fordham University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter