David Martyn argues in this text that a return to Kant's latent "Sadianism" helps to confront the unresolved question of agency - or how to formulate an ethic after the deconstruction of the subject - in cultural studies theory. Acknowledging allegations of Kant's "empty formalism" and even of his proximity to a certain Sadianism, Martyn argues that Kant's ethics are valid not despite but because of their similarity to those of Sade. In close readings that address the historical and material conditions of the composition of their work, Martyn argues that the efforts of Kant and Sade to totalize systems - of ethics, philosophy, pleasures, crimes - must fail, but that the failure leads to important insights about ethics. The book offers philosophical and rhetorical analyses of the two authors' major works, and focuses on two related thematic fields: the economy of the gift and the materiality of writing.
- ISBN10 0814330770
- ISBN13 9780814330777
- Publish Date 1 December 2002
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 20 January 2010
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Wayne State University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 232
- Language English