Mourning Becomes the Law: Philosophy and Representation

by Gillian Rose

Overview

Mourning Becomes the Law is the philosophical counterpart to the late Gillian Rose's acclaimed memoir Love's Work. It presents a powerful and eloquent case against postmodernism, and breathes new life into the debates about power and domination, transcendence and eternity. Addressing topics such as architecture, cinema, painting, poetry, the Holocaust and Judaism, Gillian Rose enables us to connect ideas about the individual and society with theories of justice. This is philosophy for the nonphilosopher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521570459
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/12/1996
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.86(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Athens and Jerusalem: a tale of three cities; 2. Beginnings of the day: Fascism and representation; 3. The comedy of Hegel and the Trauerspiel of modern philosophy; 4. 'Would that they would forsake Me but observe my Torah': Midrash and political authority; 5. Potter's Field: death worked and unworked; 6. O! Untimely death/death.

Editorial Reviews

"'I may die before my time,' Gillian Rose says in this remarkable book. She did, but she understood dying as few people have, and she lived her drastically shortened time as a philosopher who believed both in the soul and in the necessary charm of earthly powers....Death is at the heart of the book, but no one has ever argued more beautifully or eloquently that 'death is not nothing,' and that mourning, when it becomes the law, that is, when it returns to reason, could even put an end to what Gillian Rose calls the 'endless dying' of life under tyranny." Michael Wood, Princeton University

"These essays contribute to the picture of a remarkable spiritual odyssey, by a rare, demanding and pitiless intelligence." —The New Statesman

"This is a wonderful book that manages that rare feat of combining high levels of both passion and rigour. I highly recommend it." David Sherman, Dialogue

From the Publisher