Transgressing the modern : explorations in the western experience of otherness

This book provides the most concise, accessible account yet available of modern Western cultural and social explorations of 'other' forms or aspects of life that are devalued or coded as unacceptable, even unthinkable, in the modern ethos. The Author's Central Theme Is The Relationship Of Modernity To The Exclusions And Repressions That Have Become Central To The Modern Sense Of Identity, And Which Have Frequently Subverted The Liberal, Cosmopolitan Pretensions Of The Modern West. He Shows How An Understanding Of Modernity Is Inseparable From An Understanding Of This 'other' Side, These Zones Of Distortion And Taboo - The Carnivalesque, The 'primitive', Madness, Nature, Sexuality, And Aspects Of The Feminine. These Are Shown To Hold A Powerful Fascination For The Modern Imagination, And To Provide Potent Resources For Transgression, Conflict And Nostalgia. The Second Main Theme Is The Emergence Of Transgression Itself As Central To The Modern Experience Of Otherness - The Crossing Of The Boundaries That Separate 'us' And 'them', Through Art, Fantasy And The Theatrical Dimensions Of Everyday Life.--jacket. Pt. I. The Civilizing Imperative. 1. Carnival Pleasures And The Spectre Of Misrule. 2. Manners And Morals: The Civilization Of Culture -- Pt. Ii. Modernity And Its Others. 3. Exotic Encounters: Savagery, Civilization And The Imperial Other. 4. The Alienated Mind: Reason And The Exile Of Madness. 5. Modernity's Sphinx: Woman As Nature And Culture. 6. The Rape And Romance Of 'nature'. 7. Forbidden Desires: Taboo, Transgression And Sexuality -- Pt. Iii. Continuities, Challenges, Transformations. 8. Blacks, Whites And Hybrids. 9. Postmodern Possibilities: Alienating The Modern? John Jervis. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [222]) And Index. This book provides the most extensive and accessible account yet available of modern Western cultural and social explorations of the "other" -- forms or aspects of life that are devalued or coded as unacceptable, even unthinkable, in the threat that they are perceived to pose to the modern ethos.After discussing modernity as a cultural and political project associated with notions of progress and the shaping of body experiences through the "civilizing" of behavior, the book seeks to go beyond the conventional -- and characteristically male-oriented -- pieties of modern rationality to uncover these "other" dimensions, involving the carnivalesque, the "primitive," madness, nature, sexuality, and aspects of the feminine.