Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul
Rapp begins with a question posed by the poet Theodore Roethke: "Should we say that the self, once perceived, becomes a soul?" Through her examination of Plato's Phaedrus and her insights about the place of forgetting in a life, Rapp answers Roethke's query with a resounding Yes. In so doing, Rapp reimagines the Phaedrus, interprets anew Plato's relevance to contemporary life, and offers an innovative account of forgetting as a fertile fragility constitutive of humanity.

Drawing upon poetry and comparisons with other ancient Greek and Daoist texts, Rapp brings to light overlooked features of the Phaedrus, disrupts longstanding interpretations of Plato as the facile champion of memory, and offers new lines of sight onto (and from) his corpus. Her attention to the Phaedrus and her meditative apprehension of the permeable character of human life leave our understanding of both Plato and forgetting inescapably altered. Unsettle everything you think you know about Plato, suspend the twentieth-century entreaty to "Never forget," and behold here a new mode of critical reflection in which textual study and humanistic inquiry commingle to expansive effect.
1117000971
Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul
Rapp begins with a question posed by the poet Theodore Roethke: "Should we say that the self, once perceived, becomes a soul?" Through her examination of Plato's Phaedrus and her insights about the place of forgetting in a life, Rapp answers Roethke's query with a resounding Yes. In so doing, Rapp reimagines the Phaedrus, interprets anew Plato's relevance to contemporary life, and offers an innovative account of forgetting as a fertile fragility constitutive of humanity.

Drawing upon poetry and comparisons with other ancient Greek and Daoist texts, Rapp brings to light overlooked features of the Phaedrus, disrupts longstanding interpretations of Plato as the facile champion of memory, and offers new lines of sight onto (and from) his corpus. Her attention to the Phaedrus and her meditative apprehension of the permeable character of human life leave our understanding of both Plato and forgetting inescapably altered. Unsettle everything you think you know about Plato, suspend the twentieth-century entreaty to "Never forget," and behold here a new mode of critical reflection in which textual study and humanistic inquiry commingle to expansive effect.
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Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul

Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul

by Jennifer R. Rapp
Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul

Ordinary Oblivion and the Self Unmoored: Reading Plato's Phaedrus and Writing the Soul

by Jennifer R. Rapp

Hardcover

$55.00 
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Overview

Rapp begins with a question posed by the poet Theodore Roethke: "Should we say that the self, once perceived, becomes a soul?" Through her examination of Plato's Phaedrus and her insights about the place of forgetting in a life, Rapp answers Roethke's query with a resounding Yes. In so doing, Rapp reimagines the Phaedrus, interprets anew Plato's relevance to contemporary life, and offers an innovative account of forgetting as a fertile fragility constitutive of humanity.

Drawing upon poetry and comparisons with other ancient Greek and Daoist texts, Rapp brings to light overlooked features of the Phaedrus, disrupts longstanding interpretations of Plato as the facile champion of memory, and offers new lines of sight onto (and from) his corpus. Her attention to the Phaedrus and her meditative apprehension of the permeable character of human life leave our understanding of both Plato and forgetting inescapably altered. Unsettle everything you think you know about Plato, suspend the twentieth-century entreaty to "Never forget," and behold here a new mode of critical reflection in which textual study and humanistic inquiry commingle to expansive effect.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780823257430
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Publication date: 03/03/2014
Pages: 224
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Rapp is Robert Aird Chair in the Humanities at Deep Springs College.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Replete & Porous: Reading the Phaedrus and Writing the Soul
1. The Teeming Body: Making Images of the Soul Through Words
2. The Fluid Body: Madness & Displaced Discourse
3. The Torn Body: Forgotten Logos & Unmoored Ideals
Epilogue: Beyond the Phaedrus
Ghost Ribs of Discourse: Radical & Domesticated Forgetting in Euripides, Zhuangzi, and Aristotle
Poetics as First Philosophy

Notes
Bibliography
Index
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