Unselfing : Global French Literature at the Limits of Consciousness / Michaela Hulstyn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hulstyn, Michaela, author.

Series:

University of Toronto romance series.

University of Toronto Romance Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--20th century--History and criticism.

French literature.

Self in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Literary criticism

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Toronto, Ontario : University of Toronto Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Altered states of consciousness--including experiences of deprivation, pain, hallucination, fear, desire, alienation, and spiritual transcendence--can transform the ordinary experience of selfhood. Unselfing explores the nature of disruptive self-experiences and the different shapes they have taken in literary writing. The book focuses on the tension between rival conceptions of unselfing as either a form of productive self-transcendence or a form of alienating self-loss. Michaela Hulstyn explores the shapes and meanings of unselfing through the framework of the global French literary world, encompassing texts by modernist figures in France and Belgium alongside writers from Algeria, Rwanda, and Morocco. Together, these diverse texts prompt a re-evaluation of the consequences of the loss or the transcendence of the self. Through a series of close readings, Hulstyn offers a new account of the ethical questions raised by altered states and shows how philosophies of empathy can be tested against and often challenged by literary works. Drawing on cognitive science and phenomenology, Unselfing provides a new methodology for approaching texts that give shape to the fringes of conscious experience."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Toward a Cognitive-Phenomenological Approach to the Self

What Is Unselfing?

Unselfing as Disruption: Self-Knowledge and Pain in Paul Valéry and Charlotte Delbo

Unselfing as Mutation: Hallucination and the Remains in Henri Michaux and Yolande Mukagasana

Unselfing as Fragmentation: Languages of Alterity in Abdelkebir Khatibi and Hélène Cixous

Unselfing as Destruction: Decreation and Inner Experience in Simone Weil and Georges Bataille

Epilogue: Unselfing and Coming Home.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Hulstyn, Michaela Unselfing

ISBN:

9781487543778

9781487543556

OCLC:

1294298906