Ethics Through Literature: Ascetic and Aesthetic Reading in Western Culture

by Brian Stock

Why do we read? Drawing from a series of lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel in 2005, Brian Stock presents a model for relating ascetic and aesthetic principles in Western reading practices. He begins by establishing the primacy of the ethical objective in the ascetic approach to literature in Western classical thought from Plato to Augustine. This is understood in contrast to the aesthetic appreciation of literature that finds...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584656999
• ISBN13: 9781584656999
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.7"