| Description |
1 online resource (xxvi, 159 pages). |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Series |
The early modern exchange
|
|
Early modern exchange.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Confession manuals and involuntary confessions of the flesh -- Confessing the body's truths in the Heptaméron -- Torture and the limits of the body: extracting truth from legal documents -- Bending the truth in Montaigne -- Sprezzatura in French courtly handbooks -- Competing codes and involuntary confessions in the Princesse de Clèves bibliography. |
| Summary |
Involuntary Confessions of the Flesh in Early Modern France was inspired by the observation that small slips of the flesh (involuntary confessions of the flesh) are omnipresent in early modern texts of many kinds. These slips (which bear similarities to what we would today call the Freudian slip) disrupt and destabilize readings of body, self, and text--three categories whose mutual boundaries this book seeks to soften--but also, in their very messiness, participate in defining them. Involuntary Confessions capitalizes on the uncertainty of such volatile moments, arguing that it is instability itself that provides the tools to navigate and understand the complexity of the early modern world. Rather than locate the body within any one discourse (Foucauldian, psychoanalytic), this book argues that slips of the flesh create a liminal space not exactly outside of discourse, but not necessarily subject to it, either. Involuntary confessions of the flesh reveal the perpetual and urgent challenge of early modern thinkers to textually confront and define the often tenuous relationship between the body and the self. By eluding and frustrating attempts to contain it, the early modern body reveals that truth is as much about surfaces as it is about interior depth, and that the self is fruitfully perpetuated by the conflict that proceeds from seemingly irreconcilable narratives. Interdisciplinary in its scope, Involuntary Confessions of the Flesh in Early Modern France pairs major French literary works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (by Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Madame de Lafayette) with cultural documents (confession manuals, legal documents about the application of torture, and courtly handbooks). It is the first study of its kind to bring these discourses into thematic (rather than linear or chronological) dialog. In so doing, it emphasizes the shared struggle of many different early modern conversations to come to terms with the body's volatility. -- From publisher's website. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
French literature -- 17th century -- History and criticism.
|
|
French literature. |
| Chronological Term |
17th century |
| Subject |
French prose literature -- 17th century -- History and criticism.
|
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French prose literature. |
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Human body in literature.
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Human body in literature. |
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Mind and body in literature.
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Mind and body in literature. |
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Peterson, Nora Martin. Involuntary confessions of the flesh in early modern France. Newark : University of Delaware Press ; Lanham, Maryland : The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2016] 9781611496253 (DLC) 2016026330 (OCoLC)951158101 |
| ISBN |
9781644530351 (electronic book) |
|
164453035X (electronic book) |
|
9781611496253 |
|
161149625X |
|
9781644530344 |
|
1644530341 |
|
