The Perils of Uglytown

Studies in Structural Misanthropology from Plato to Rembrandt

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Good & Evil, Art & Architecture, Art History, European, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book The Perils of Uglytown by Harry Berger, Jr., Fordham University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Harry Berger, Jr. ISBN: 9780823270583
Publisher: Fordham University Press Publication: July 1, 2015
Imprint: Fordham University Press Language: English
Author: Harry Berger, Jr.
ISBN: 9780823270583
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Publication: July 1, 2015
Imprint: Fordham University Press
Language: English

With characteristic wit, Harry Berger, Jr., brings his flair for close reading to texts and images across two millennia that illustrate what he calls “structural misanthropology.” Beginning with a novel reading of Plato, Berger emphasizes Socrates’s self-acknowledged failures. The dialogues, he shows, offer up, only to dispute, a misanthropic polis. The Athenian city-state, they worry, is founded on a social order motivated by apprehension—both the desire to take and the fear of being taken. In addition to suggesting new political
and philosophical dimensions to Platonic thought, Berger’s attention to rhetorical practice offers novel ways of parsing the dialogic method itself.

In the book’s second half, Berger revisits and revises his earlier accounts of Italian humanism, Elizabethan drama, and Dutch painting. Berger shows how structural misanthropology helps us to read the competitive practices that characterize Renaissance writing and art, whether in Machiavelli’s constitutional prostheses, Shakespeare’s pageants of humiliation, or the elbow jabs of Dutch portraiture.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

With characteristic wit, Harry Berger, Jr., brings his flair for close reading to texts and images across two millennia that illustrate what he calls “structural misanthropology.” Beginning with a novel reading of Plato, Berger emphasizes Socrates’s self-acknowledged failures. The dialogues, he shows, offer up, only to dispute, a misanthropic polis. The Athenian city-state, they worry, is founded on a social order motivated by apprehension—both the desire to take and the fear of being taken. In addition to suggesting new political
and philosophical dimensions to Platonic thought, Berger’s attention to rhetorical practice offers novel ways of parsing the dialogic method itself.

In the book’s second half, Berger revisits and revises his earlier accounts of Italian humanism, Elizabethan drama, and Dutch painting. Berger shows how structural misanthropology helps us to read the competitive practices that characterize Renaissance writing and art, whether in Machiavelli’s constitutional prostheses, Shakespeare’s pageants of humiliation, or the elbow jabs of Dutch portraiture.

More books from Fordham University Press

Cover of the book Systems of Life by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Memory and Complicity by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Think, Pig! by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Lyric Apocalypse by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Classical New York by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Resistance of the Sensible World by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book How to Do Comparative Theology by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Recoding World Literature by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Musical Meaning and Human Values by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Fifth Avenue Famous by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Even in Chaos by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Spiritual Grammar by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Death and Other Penalties by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book The Sentimental Touch by Harry Berger, Jr.
Cover of the book Vox Populi by Harry Berger, Jr.
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy