Description
Book SynopsisThis book, winner of the 2007 Siglo XXI International Essay Prize, is unique in its approach to exile and offers remarkable insights into the subject. It discusses both human nature and the phenomenon of exile with depth and exactness from the combined perspectives of philosophy, morality, politics, anthropology, and history. After retracing the lessons learned through diverse experiences of exile from antiquity to modern times, it uses poetry as metatestimony to examine exile, subjectivity, and the many moral and political implications involved. The result is a series of thoughtprovoking connections between exile and the way we assume our lives.
Table of ContentsA Map for the Road 1 Words, Words, Words 1“Our Bones are Dried Up”—“Build Houses and Dwell in Them” 2“I Am a Foreigner in Every Land”—“In Every Land I Am at Home” 3Demands from Different Directions 4Reasons For and Against Certain Cosmopolitanisms 2 Testimonies and Metatestimonies 1Testimonies of Injustice 2The Difficult and Infuriating Art of Self-Interruption 3Metatestimonies 3 Exile as Loss 1There is a Time to Be Involved and a Time to Step Away 4 Exile as Resistance 1There is a Time to Resist and a Time to Break with the Situation Being Resisted as Well as with Resistance Itself 5 Exile as a New Beginning 6 Words Say, Words Resonate 1Arrogant Reasoning 2Comparisons, Metaphors, Analogies, Abstractions, Perspectives… On the Varying Resonations of Some Uses of Words Like “Exile,” “Loss,” “Resistance” and “New Beginning,” 3An Usher for Loss 7 Nomadic Cultures and Personhood 1Cultural Storerooms 2Two Types of Practical Norms 3The Dilemma of Personhood 4Capacity for Judgment Clarification Bibliography Index
