The paradox of suicide and creativity : authentications of human existence / M. F. Alvarez ; foreword by George Atwood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alvarez, M. F.

Contributor:

Atwood, George.

Bloomsbury (Firm), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Creative ability.

Suicidal behavior.

Suicide.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (205 pages)

Distribution:

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing (US), 2020.

Place of Publication:

Blue Ridge Summit : Lexington Books, 2020.

Summary:

"If creativity is the highest expression of the life impulse, why do creative individuals who have made lasting contributions to the arts and sciences so often end their lives? M.F. Alvarez addresses this central paradox by exploring the inner lives and works of eleven creative visionaries who succumbed to suicide. Through a series of case studies, Alvarez shows that creativity and suicide are both attempts to authenticate and resolve personal catastrophes that have called into question the most basic conditions of human existence."-- Publisher description

Contents:

'You Will Rescue Objects from Oblivion': The Case of Iris Chang

'Haunted by the Vivid Memories of Killings': The Case of Kevin Carter

Interlude 1: Is Creativity Intrinsically Healing?

'Give Me One Good Reason to Stay': The Case of Phyllis Hyman

'A Dry Place to Call Their Home': The Case of Kurt Cobain

Individuation through Poetry and Death: The Case of Sylvia Plath

Interlude 2: Creativity and Temporality

'The Soul We Have Loved, the Soul that Has Left Us': The Case of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan

A Lifelong Project of Resurrection: The Case of Alan Turing

Interlude 3: Suicide as Authentication of the Self

Existence through Annihilation: The Case of Yukio Mishima

'Beauty Is a Dissident Force': The Case of Reinaldo Arenas

The Drama of the Disintegrating Self: The Case of Robin Williams

Interlude 4: The Medicalization of Life and Death.

ISBN:

1-9787-3681-9

1-4985-2383-8

OCLC:

1225545997