The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism

In this bold interdisciplinary work, Geoffrey Galt Harpham argues that asceticism has played a major role in shaping Western ideas of body, writing, ethics, and aesthetics. He suggests that we consider ascetic as the 'cultural' element in culture, and presents a close analysis of works by Athanasius, Augustine, Matthias, Grunewald, Nietzsche, Foucault, and other thinkers as proof of extent of asceticism's resources. Harpham demonstrates usefulness of his findings by deriving from asceticism a discourse of resistance, a code of interpretation ultimately more generous and humane than those currently available to us.