The Wounded Body

by Slattery, Dennis Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780791443811
• ISBN10: 0791443817
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Slattery (mythological studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute) provides an interdisciplinary examination of the wounded body in literature from Homer to Toni Morrison. Integrating insights from phenomenology to Jungian archetypal psychology, Slattery argues that the body in its scarred, marked, diseases, tattooed, or otherwise afflicted state is not only an individual phenomenon but a cultural symptom.

Author Biography

Dennis Patrick Slattery is Interdisciplinary Coordinator and Core Faculty Member, the Mythological Studies Program, Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction
The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh	1	(20)
Nature and Narratives
Feeding the Fictions of the Body in Homer's Odyssey	21	(30)
Wandering Wounds and Meandering Words
The Tragic Body of Memory in Oedipus Rex	51	(18)
Speak Daggers But Use None
Denmark's Wounded Body	69	(16)
Rousseau's Confessions
Autobiography, Body Cleansing, and the Invention of the Paris Sewer System	85	(30)
Corrupting Corpse versus Reasoned Abstraction
The Play of Evil in The Brothers Karamazov	115	(16)
The White Whale and the Afflicted Body of Myth	131	(26)
Rebellious Things and Deepening Wounds in the Life of Ivan Ilych	157	(50)
Wounds and Tattoos
Marking the Mystery in Flannery O'Connor's ``Revelation'' and ``Parker's Back''	177	(30)
The Narrative Body and the Incarnate Word in Toni Morrison's Beloved	207	(30)
Concluding Reflections	237	(4)
Notes	241	(22)
Works Cited	263	(20)
Index	283