About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherNorthwestern University Press

ISBN-100810128160

ISBN-139780810128163

eBay Product ID (ePID)110857612

Product Key Features

Number of Pages184 Pages

Publication NameSacrifice in the Modern World : on the Particularity and Generality of Nazi Myth

LanguageEnglish

SubjectEuropean / German, Europe / Germany, Folklore & Mythology, Violence in Society, Sociology of Religion

Publication Year2012

TypeTextbook

AuthorDavid Pan

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Social Science, History

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight14.9 Oz

Item Length9.1 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2012-011865

Reviews" Sacrifice in the Modern World is an extremely exciting work--pathbreaking, bold, and comprehensive--and a major contribution to the fields of German studies, aesthetic theory, and cultural theory. There's a lot at stake here, involving the question of sacrifice and the interpretation of German history as well as in the many rich building blocks of the argument that discuss Kant, Nietzsche, Adorno, Bataille, and Girard. It will be received in the intellectual world as both a major theoretical statement and an insightful treatment of a specific historical moment and its cultural sources." --Russell A. Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal306.6

Table Of ContentIntroduction 4Chapter One - Violence and Culture: The Sublime from Kant to Adorno 18Chapter Two - The Politics of Myth in the Nazi Period: Alfred Baeumler and Carl Einstein 62Chapter Three - Theories of Sacrifice in the Modern World: Georges Bataille, René Girard, and Walter Burkert 109Chapter Four - The Genealogy of Nazi Morality 157Epilogue 208

SynopsisA landmark book, David Pan's Sacrifice in the Modern World seeks to explain the continuing emphasis, in modern times, on sacrifice. Pan specifically turns to the culture of sacrifice--ritualized and sanctified death--in Nazi Germany, showing how that regime co-opted an existing discussion of sacrifice and infused it with its own mythology. Pan suggests that sacrifice is a key value in every society but that there is a preponderance of association of sacrifice with Nazi culture and therefore a largely pejorative treatment of sacrifice. Surveying the arguments of philosopher Alfred Baeumler and other symptomatic Nazi texts, Pan shows how the Nazis' reactionary intellectual culture unraveled much of the Enlightenment project. In so doing, he is able to offer a compelling new perspective on basic theoretical concepts in the work of Kant, Nietzsche, Adorno, Bataille, Girard, and others. He posits that it is only by clearing our way through the Nazis' misuse of sacrifice that we can understand the durability of sacrificial structures that--following several of the theorists he discusses-- establish the fundamental values by which we live our lives. Rather than condemning the Nazi appeal to sacrifice itself, this book looks at the particular ways in which sacrifice was distributed and structured within that society. All cultures must grapple with the existential violence of the human condition, and they frequently do so through aesthetic treatments of sacrifice, rooted in myths and traditions. Pan argues that our task is not to eradicate these traditions but to engage them by carefully evaluating the commitments and values that they imply., A landmark book, David Pan's Sacrifice in the Modern World seeks to explain the continuing emphasis, in modern times, on sacrifice. Pan specifically turns to the culture of sacrifice--ritualized and sanctified death--in Nazi Germany, showing how that regime co-opted an existing discussion of sacrifice and infused it with its own mythology. Pan suggests that sacrifice is a key value in every society but that there is a preponderance of association of sacrifice with Nazi culture and therefore a largely pejorative treatment of sacrifice. Surveying the arguments of philosopher Alfred Baeumler and other symptomatic Nazi texts, Pan shows how the Nazis' reactionary intellec-tual culture unraveled much of the Enlightenment project. In so doing, he is able to offer a compelling new perspective on basic theoretical concepts in the work of Kant, Nietzsche, Adorno, Bataille, Girard, and others. He posits that it is only by clearing our way through the Nazis' misuse of sacrifice that we can understand the durability of sacrifi-cial structures that--following several of the theorists he discusses-- establish the fundamental values by which we live our lives. Rather than condemning the Nazi appeal to sacrifice itself, this book looks at the particular ways in which sacrifice was distributed and structured within that society. All cultures must grapple with the existential violence of the human condition, and they frequently do so through aesthetic treatments of sacrifice, rooted in myths and tradi-tions. Pan argues that our task is not to eradicate these traditions but to engage them by carefully evaluating the commitments and values that they imply., A landmark book, David Pan's Sacrifice in the Modern World seeks to explain the continuing emphasis, in modern times, on sacrifice. Pan specifically turns to the culture of sacrifice--ritualized and sanctified death--in Nazi Germany, showing how that regime co-opted an existing discussion of sacrifice and infused it with its own mythology.

LC Classification NumberDD256.6.P36 2012