{"product_id":"9781441195647","title":"Weakness: A Literary and Philosophical History","description":"Examining the\u003cbr\u003enature of weakness has inspired some of the most influential aesthetic and\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical portraits of the human condition. By reading a selection of\u003cbr\u003ecanonical literary and philosophical texts, Michael O'Sullivan charts a history\u003cbr\u003eof responses to the experience and exploration of weakness.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning with Plato and Aristotle, this first book-length study of the concept\u003cbr\u003eexplores weakness as it is interpreted by Lao Tzu, Nietzsche, Derrida, the\u003cbr\u003eRomantics, Dickens and the Modernists. It examines what feminist writers Simone\u003cbr\u003ede Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray have made of the gendered biomythology\u003cbr\u003econstructed around the figure of the \"weaker vessel\" and it considers related\u003cbr\u003enotions such as im-potentiality, a \"syntax of weakness\" and human vulnerability\u003cbr\u003ein the work of Agamben, Beckett and Coetzee. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Through analysis of these differing versions of weakness, O'Sullivan's study\u003cbr\u003echallenges the popular myth that aligns masculine identity with strength and\u003cbr\u003eforce and presents a humane weakness as a guiding motif for debates in ethics.","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47154280792304,"sku":"9781441195647","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781441195647_p0.jpg?v=1763802694","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781441195647","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}