Scars of the spirit : the struggle against inauthenticity

In this fascinating collection of essays, noted cultural critic Geoffrey Hartman raises the essential question of where we can find the real or authentic in today's world, and how this affects the way we can understand our human predicament. Hartman explores such issues as the fantasy of total and perfect information available on the Internet, the biographical excesses of tell-all daytime talk shows, and how we can understand what is "true" in biographical and testimonial writing. And, what, he asks, is the ethical point of all this personal testimony? What has it really taught us? Underlying the entire book is a question of how the Holocaust has shaped the possibilities for truth and for the writing of an authentic life story in today's world, and how we can approach the world in a meaningful way. Hartman produces a meditation on how an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of art and writing may help us to answer these questions of meaning. In this collection of essays, critic Geoffrey Hartman raises the essential question of where we can find the real or authentic in the contemporary world, and how this affects the way we can understand our human predicament. Hartman explores such issues as the fantasy of total and perfect information available on the internet, the biographical excesses of tell-all daytime talk shows, and how we can understand what is "true" in biographical and testimonial writing. And, what, he asks, is the ethical point of all this personal testimony? What has it really taught us? Underlying the entire book is a question of how the Holocaust has shaped the possibilities for truth and for the writing of an authentic life story in the contemporary world, and how we can approach the world in a meaningful way. Hartman produces a meditation on how an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of art and writing may help us to answer these questions of meaning. His idea is that the form of contemplation produced by the aesthetic, and particularly by poetry resists both the fantasy of data delivering up its own final meaning and of ideology delivering us from literature and life "In this collection of essays, noted critic Geoffrey Hartman raises the essential question of where we can find the real or authentic in today's world, and how this affects the way we understand our human predicament. Hartman explores such issues as the fantasy of total information and perfect communication encouraged by the internet, the biographical excesses of tell-all talk shows that serve to shore up a personal sense of unreality, the tendency to motivate violence in the name of some moral or spiritual necessity, and the increased difficulty of distinguishing between fakery and truth in confessional and testimonial writing. Underlying the entire book is the crucial issue of how the trauma of the Holocaust and other genocidal acts, brought home to us almost daily by the media, is shaping our quest for agency, identity, and meaning."--BOOK JACKET. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Foreword......Page 8 PART I: TRIPLE OVERTURE......Page 14 1 Dangerous Good Words......Page 16 2 A Short History of the Unreal......Page 38 3 Remnants of Hegel......Page 54 PART II......Page 66 4 Realism, Authenticity, and the New Biographical Culture......Page 68 5 Tele-Suffering and Testimony......Page 80 6 Testimony and Authenticity......Page 98 PART III......Page 114 7 The Letter as Revenant......Page 116 8 Text and Spirit......Page 132 9 Transparency Reconsidered......Page 150 PART IV......Page 172 10 Who Needs Goethe?......Page 174 11 The Virtue of Attentiveness......Page 190 12 Democracy’s Museum......Page 204 13 Aestheticide......Page 224 Epilogue......Page 244 Notes......Page 250 B......Page 268 G......Page 269 L......Page 270 P......Page 271 T......Page 272 Y......Page 273

A powerful mediation on authenticity and contemporary life by one of our most renowned literary critics

Publishers Weekly

Longtime Yale professor Hartman is the author of a definitive study of Wordsworth, numerous explanations of deconstruction and trenchant recent writing on the Holocaust. In 13 essays such as A Short History of the Unreal and Aestheticide, Hartman carefully shows how reading can lead us to our authentic selves, and away from a disenchantment that is final. (Sept. 2) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"Spirit" and "authenticity" are word concepts that cannot be saved from their own pathos.