Description
Troubled Pleasures considers the ways in which modern pleasure is fraught with unhappy implications, at the same time as contemporary critical arguments put into question the touchstones of identity, morality, subjectivity and desire. It brings together writings which explore the sources of pleasure's 'loss of innocence', and which argue the case for a scrupulous 'alternative hedonism'. Including essays on human needs, socialism and gender, a feminist response to Joyce's Ulysses, and a fictional reflection on appetite and excess, Troubled Pleasures plots an Epicurean path between righteous asceticism and conspicuous consumption.
About the Author
Kate Soper is emerita professor of philosophy at London Metropolitan University. She has published widely on environmental philosophy and theory of needs and consumption.
Reviews
Kate Soper's dedicated, deeply intelligent writing is bravely in the service of human emancipation. -- Terry Eagleton
With enviable clarity and passionate commitment Kate Soper tackles today's central issues and challenges postmodern scepticism, old Marxist certainties and new feminist fundamentalisms. -- Lynne Segal
Book Information
ISBN 9780860915362
Author Kate Soper
Format Paperback
Page Count 302
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 457g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 152mm * 23mm