Death-Drive: Freudian Hauntings in Literature and Art (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780748640393)

Robert Rowland Smith takes Freud's work on the death-drive and compares it with other philosophies of death - Pascal, Heidegger and Derrida in particular. He also applies it in a new way to literature and art - to Shakespeare, Rothko and Katharina Fritsch, among others. He asks whether artworks are dead or alive, if artistic creativity isn't actually a form of destruction, and whether our ability to be seduced by fine words means we don't put our selves at risk of death. In doing so, he proposes a new theory of aesthetics in which artworks and literary texts have a death-drive of their own, not least by their defining ability to turn away from all that is real, and where the effects of the death-drive mean that we are constantly living in imaginary, rhetorical or 'artistic' worlds. The book also provides a valuable introduction to the rich tradition of work on the death-drive since Freud.Key Features* Includes a general introduction to the death-drive* Presents an original theory of aesthetics* Analyses both theoretical and clinical psychoanalysis* Offers in-depth treatment of Freud* Provides an overview of philosophies of death

Author: Robert Rowland Smith
ISBN-10: 0748640398
ISBN-13: 9780748640393
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/30/2010
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.80d