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A Philosophy of Shame:A Revolutionary Emotion
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An original reflection on shame as the central feeling of our age â the expression of an anger that is the necessary condition for new struggles
Can shame become a source of political strength? Faced with injustice, growing inequality and systemic violence, we cry out in shame. We feel ashamed of obscene wealth amid wider deprivation. We feel ashamed of humanity for its ruthless and relentless exploitation of the earth. We feel ashamed of the racism and sexism that permeate society and our everyday lives.
This difficult emotion is not just sadness or a withdrawal into oneself, nor is it a paralysing sense of inadequacy. As FrĂ©dĂ©ric Gros argues in A Philosophy of Shame, it arises when our perception of reality rejects passivity and resignation and instead embraces imagination. Shame thus becomes the expression of an anger that is a powerful, transformative force âone that assumes a radical character.
In dialogue with authors such as Primo Levi, Annie Ernaux, Virginie Despentes and James Baldwin, Gros explores a concept that is still little understood in its anthropological, moral, psychological and political depths. Shame is a revoluÂtionary sentiment because it lies at the foundation of any path of subjective recognition, transformation and struggle.
Reviews
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In this elegant, psychologically sharp and richly referenced analysis, Gros shows us how shame, as Marx wrote, âis already a revolution of its kindâ. In chapters that weave deftly between politics, literature and psychoanalysis, he leads us carefully through the familiar sources of shame (social contempt, moral violence, bodily disgust) to its collective and public iterations (shame at oneâs people, or even oneâs species). He shows us how it is through embracing shame as a passionate engagement with the world that one escapes its melancholic and disfiguring effects.
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Equipped with many references to Freud, French classics, and Greek philosophy, Gros attempts to reveal the complexities of human shame by parsing it out into a series of taxonomies such as moral shame, digital shame, and shame rooted in how one is perceived by others
Kirkus Reviews -
In cataloguing the varieties of shame, Gros roughly defines it as âan amalgam of sadness and rage,â often rooted in the fear of exposure...Gros hopes to revive it as a force for change, citing Marx: 'If a whole nation were to feel ashamed it would be like a lion recoiling in order to spring.'
, Harper's Magazine
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An accessible and engaging introduction to philosophical conceptions of shame.
, The Washington Post