Passive Nihilism: Cultural Historiography and the Rhetorics of Scholarship [Paperback]

Sande Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0312227477 | ISBN-13: 978-0312227470

Examining multiple academic discourses, Passive Nihilism argues that contemporary models of history, culture, and language are reactive and that their mix of epistemology, rhetoric, and politics is too explosive for the interpretations associated with "normal criticism." Sande Cohen argues that "cultural historiography" is a discourse that makes "orders" and "cultural timings" out of language, showing the inseparability of rhetoric, epistemology, and politics in the discourses of the "human sciences." Reading texts as distinct as professional history-writing, Derrida’s Specters of Marx, Carlo Ginzburg’s metahistorical projections, Bruno Latour’s anti-deconstructive model of science studies, art-curatorial models of history, and neo-psychoanalysis’ obsessive turn to negation, Passive Nihilism argues that the concept of "passive nihilism" sustains such discourses, giving the human sciences a reactive and idealist gloss.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“. . . an elegant and powerful expansion on the work of Hayden White.” —Tom Conley, Harvard University

“Sande Cohen is one of the most original scholars working in the field of cultural criticism today.” —Hayden White, Stanford University

About the Author

Sande Cohen teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (November 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312227477
• ISBN-13: 978-0312227470
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,607,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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