A genealogy of the modern self : Thomas De Quincey and the intoxication of writing
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
A genealogy of the modern self : Thomas De Quincey and the intoxication of writing
Stanford University Press, 1995
Available at 20 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-328) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
As this book's title suggests, its main argument is that Thomas De Quincey's literary output, which is both a symptom and an effect of his addictions to opium and writing, plays an important and mostly unacknowledged role in the development of modern and modernist forms of subjectivity. At the same time, the book shows that intoxication, whether in the strict medical sense or in its less technical meaning ("strong excitement," "trance," "ecstasy"), is central to the ways in which modernity, and literary modernity in particular, functions and defines itself. In both its theoretical and practical implications, intoxication symbolizes and often comes to constitute the condition of the alienated artist in the age of the market. The book also offers new readings of the Confessions and some of De Quincey's posthumous writings, as well as an extended analysis of his relatively neglected diary. The discussion of De Quincey's work also elicits new insights into his relationship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, as well as his imaginary investment in Coleridge.
Table of Contents
Part I. Prodigal Economies: 1. An unprecedented discourse 2. How to publish oneself 3. Prodigality and the regime of opium 4. Prodigal narratives 5. The dreamwork Part II. Sources of a Self: 6. Paideia 7. Pseudospiritual exercises 8. Rhetorical exercises 9. Pathos as technique 10. What shall be my character? Part III. Ontology as Fashion: 11. Distance 12. 'Real' passion 13. The literature of power 14. The art of echoing 15. Gothic confessions: the rape of the brain.
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