Involuntary confessions of the flesh in early modern France / Nora Martin Peterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, Nora Martin, author.

Series:

Early modern exchange

The early modern exchange

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--17th century--History and criticism.

French literature.

French prose literature--17th century--History and criticism.

French prose literature.

Human body in literature.

Mind and body in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 159 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Newark : University of Delaware Press ; Lanham, Maryland : The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2016]

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 or 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, and 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) dialogue. In so doing, it emphasizes the shared struggle of many different early modern conversations in coming to terms with the body's volatility. Book jacket.

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Electronic version: Peterson, Nora Martin. Involuntary confessions of the flesh in early modern France.

ISBN:

9781611496253

161149625X

OCLC:

951158101