Ecce humanitas : beholding the pain of humanity / Brad Evans ; foreword by Jake Chapman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Evans, Brad, author.

Contributor:

Chapman, Jake, writer of foreword.

Series:

Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Victims--Social aspects.

Victims.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (352 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Columbia University Press, [2021]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The very idea of humanity seems to be in crisis. Born in the ashes of devastation after the slaughter of millions, the liberal conception of humanity imagined a suffering victim in need of salvation. Today, this figure appears less and less capable of galvanizing the political imagination. But without it, how are we to respond to the inhumane violence that overwhelms our political and philosophical registers? How can we make sense of the violence that was carried out in the name of humanism? And how can we develop more ethical relations without becoming parasitic on the pain of others?Through a critical exploration of violence and the sacred, Ecce Humanitas recasts the fall of liberal humanism. Brad Evans offers a rich analysis of the changing nature of sacrificial violence, from its theological origins to the exhaustion of the victim in the contemporary world. He critiques the aestheticization that turns victims into sacred objects, sacrificial figures that demand response, perpetuating a cycle of violence that is seen as natural and inevitable. In novel readings of classic and contemporary works, Evans traces the sacralization of violence as well as art’s potential to incite resistance. Countering the continued annihilation of life, Ecce Humanitas calls for liberating the political imagination from the scene of sacrifice. A new aesthetics provides a form of transgressive witnessing that challenges the ubiquity of violence and allows us to go beyond humanism to imagine a truly liberated humanity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword: An Obituary for the Liberal

Preface: Encountering the Void

PART I: The Sacrifice

Chapter 1. Humanity Bound

Chapter 2. The Sacred Order of Politics

Chapter 3. The Shame of Being Human

PART II: The Fall of Liberal Humanism

Chapter 4. A Higher State of Killing

Chapter 5. The Death of the Victim

Chapter 6. A Sickness of Reason

PART III: Into the Void

Chapter 7. Annihilation

Chapter 8. The Transgressive Witness

Chapter 9. Wounds of Love

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-231-54558-4

OCLC:

1233023489