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