Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture

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Cover Death, Desire and Lossin Western Culture Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction I THE ANCIENT WORLD Eros and Thanatos, Change and Loss in the Ancient World 2 'All Words Fail through Weariness': Ecclesiastes 3 Escaping Desire: Christianity, Gnosticism and Buddhism II MUTABILITY, MELANCHOLY AND QUEST: THE RENAISSANCE 4 Fatal Confusions: Sex and Death in Early Modern Culture 5 'Death's Incessant Motion 6 Death and Identity 7 'Desire is Death': Shakespeare Ill SOCIAL DEATH 8 The Denial of Death? 9 Degeneration and Dissidence 10 Between Degeneration and the Death Drive: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness IV MODERNITY AND PHILOSOPHY: THE AUTHENTICITY OF NOTHINGNESS 11 The Philosophical Embrace of Death: Hegel 12 Heidegger, Kojève and Sartre V THE DESIRE NOT TO BE: LATE METAPHYSICS AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 13 Dying as the Real Aim of Life: Schopenhauer 14 Freud: Life as a Detourto Death VI RENOUNCING DEATH 15 The Philosophy of Praxis and Emancipation: Feuerbach, Marx, Marcuse VII THE AESTHETICS OF ENERGY 16 Fighting Décadence: Nietzsche against Schopenhauer and Wagner 17 Ecstasy and Annihilation: Georges Bataille 18 In Search of Potency: D. H. Lawrence VIII DEATH AND THE HOMOEROTIC 19 Wrecked by Desire: Thomas Mann 20 Promiscuity and Death 21 The Wonder of the Pleasure Notes Bibliography Index