The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault

Download or read book The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault written by Chloe Taylor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-05-26 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a genealogical study of confession. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault as well as the history of Western confessional writings from Ancient Greece to contemporary pop culture, this book challenges the transhistorical and commonsense views of confession as an innate impulse resulting in the psychological liberation of the confessing subject. On the contrary, confessional desire is argued to be contingent and constraining, and alternatives to confessional subjectivity are explored.