Eros in Mourning

by Staten, Henry

• ISBN13: 9780801869990
• ISBN10: 0801869994
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-28
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Eros in Mourningbegins with a reading of the Iliadthat shows how Homer, not yet influenced by the ideology of transcendence, analyzes the structure of unassuageable mourning in a way that is as up-to-date as the latest poststructuralism. Then, in readings of Dante, Hamlet, La Princess de Clèves,Heart of Darkness, and Lacan, Staten depicts the "thanato-erotic" hysteria that is set off by the specter of the dead and decomposing body that is also the body of sexual love and which, in the "transcendentalizing" tradition, is more female than male. Yet, St. John, certain troubadours, and Milton offer glimpses of a more affirmative relation to "eros in mourning."

Author Biography

Henry Staten is a professor of English and comparative literature and adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Washington. He is the author of Wittgenstein and Derrida and Nietzsche's Voice.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
The Argument	p. 1
Two Arkhe-Texts
Before Transcendence: The Iliad	p. 21
How the Spirit (Almost) Became Flesh: The Gospel of John	p. 47
The Troubadours and Their Aftermath
Cruel Lady, or The Decline of the "Gay Science" from the Troubadours to Dante	p. 73
Infidelity and Death in Hamlet and La Princesse de Cleves	p. 98
Adam's Choice: Paradise Lost	p. 108
Tragical-Existential
Inflicting/Mourning: Heart of Darkness	p. 139
The Bride Stripped Bare, or Lacan avec Plato	p. 166
Notes	p. 187
Index	p. 225
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