Description
Book SynopsisDraws on literature, law, and psychoanalysis to examine important aspects of the emergence of identity as a peculiarly modern preoccupation. This book addresses the social, legal, and personal anxieties provoked by the rise of individualism and selfhood in modern culture.
Trade Review"A wide range of knowledge allows Brooks to make myriad connections and to cast a wider net, as it were, around his topic, finding resonances in many places."--Stephan Delbos, Prague Post "Rich, complex, and rewarding."--Choice "Elegant and provocative, Enigmas of Identity offers new insights into the questions and clues about who we think we are."--World Book Industry "Brooks's aim--to enrich his reader's thinking about identity--was certainly fulfilled for this reader, and should be for anyone who has a broad education including the literary territory which the book takes for granted. Readers with a different background, such as my students, might find Brooks's approach rambling and elitist. Let us be thankful that there is still room in publishing today for such a rewarding elitist ramble."--John Joseph, European Legacy
Table of ContentsTo Begin 1 Chapter 1. Marks of Identity 10 Chapter 2. Egotisms 35 Chapter 3. The "Outcast of the Universe"? 60 Chapter 4. Discovering the Self in Self-Pleasuring 92 Chapter 5. "Inevitable Discovery": Searches, Narrative, Identity 117 Chapter 6. The Derealization of Self 147 Chapter 7. The Madness of Art 170 Epilogue: The Identity Paradigm 195 Acknowledgments 199 Notes 201 Index 217
