The Ethics of Writing: Authorship and Legacy in Plato and Nietzsche

ISBN-13: 9780748641796 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 256 str.

Sean Burke

Opis

Beginning amidst the tombs of the 'dead' God, and the crematoria at Auschwitz, this book confronts Nietzsche's legacy through the lens of Plato. The key question is how authors can protect against the possible 'deviant readings' of future readers and assess 'the risk of writing'. Burke recommends an ethic of 'discursive containment'.The ethical question is the question of our times. Within critical theory, it has focused on the act of reading. This study reverses the terms of inquiry to analyse the ethical composition of the act of writing. What responsibility does an author bear for his legacy? Do 'catastrophic' misreadings of authors (e.g. Plato, Nietzsche) testify to authorial recklessness? These and other questions are the starting-point for a theory of authorial ethics.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Key to References and Abbreviations; Prologue: Friedrich Nietzsche in Auschwitz, or the Posthumous Return of the Author; Introduction: The Responsibilities of the Writer; 1. The Ethical Opening; 2. The Ethics of Legacy; 3. Signature and Authorship in the Phaedrus; 4. The Textual Estate: Nietzsche and Authorial Responsibility; Bibliography; Index.