Cult of the Kill: Traditional Metaphysics of Rhetoric, Truth, and Violence in a Postmodern World - Softcover

Desilet, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1401063470 ISBN 13: 9781401063474

Publisher: Xlibris, 2006

Synopsis

The ominous title borrows a phrase made famous by American cultural critic and language theorist Kenneth Burke. He claims that within its many resources language introduces one in particular--the negative--that inclines humans toward modes of evaluation and discrimination that offer many seductive avenues toward "congregation by segregation."

As an introduction to the complex landscape of modern/postmodern language theory, Cult of the Kill examines the latent violence inherent in language as a tool for community formation and deformation. Each chapter examines different ways in which key theorists contribute to an understanding of the metaphysical underpinnings of radical conflict and exclusionary scapegoating practices.

The introduction orients readers toward metaphysical tensions embedded within the structural layers of language that have likely figured in crucial ways in the 20th Century's "cult of the kill" history. It explores the question: To what extent may a less violent future lie in the possibility of a metaphysical choice that departs from the tradition of the use of the negative that Burke identifies? This question bears importantly on questions raised in each of the chapters as these also explore in parallel fashion the apparent controversy between Enlightenment based forms of humanism and rationalism and postmodern trends toward rhetorical and cultural relativism.

About this title

About the Author

See below

From the Back Cover

In Cult of the Kill Desilet not only offers a very insightful exploration of the work of key thinkers like Burke, Derrida, Heidegger, and Macksoud but also manages to synthesize these works in a very original way by addressing the themes of scapegoating and violence. Desilet's work is postmodern thought at its best as it examines our conceptual limitations while never falling into nihilism or despair. It is a must read for those interested in the intersection of rhetoric, postmodern theory, and hermeneutics--Francois Cooren, Associate Professor of Communication, Universite de Montreal

Desilet's reading rightly interprets and presents in a context adequate to its importance what some have misunderstood, namely, that deconstruction, does not presuppose 'difference without hierarchy' in social organization or elsewhere.... Though it can be said that irreducible difference does not imply natural or absolute solidity of hierarchies of difference, it also does not imply an absence of hierarchy--Jacques Derrida, Professor of Philosophy, Late Directeur d'Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris

Desilet has made an important advance in rhetorical theory. In this work he explores the dark side of community formation and group cohesion. The book is brilliant, fluent, and provocative--Andrew King, Professor of Communication, University of Louisiana

The title of Desilet's book does not arrive ex nihilo. It is the age of 'cult of the kill'.... and he does not leave the reader to consider the 'cult of the kill' dispassionately as if it were strictly at the level of being and becoming, essence and existence... instead he conveys a powerful sense of the drama, conflict, and consequences at stake within metaphysics and our implicit understandings of language.... Chapter Three is extraordinary in its use of Burke and Heidegger to illuminate each other as well as the profoundly troubling issue of Heidegger's Nazi association. The conclusions formed, though admittedly not final (is there ever closure?), are hard but fair--W. B. Macomber, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, University of California

Chapter Four is "a terrific piece of work... stimulating and provocative.... readers will be tremendously impressed by the clarity with which the congruencies between physics and language theory are explained, from the Renaissance through the postmodern period.... This essay is wide-ranging and well-written and is a joy to read... especially in the way the discussion moves back and forth smoothly from its interpretive history of developments in physics to major shifts in the understanding of language in society."--Associate Editors, The Quarterly Journal of Speech

Edition details

• Publisher: Xlibris
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1401063470
• ISBN 13: 9781401063474
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340