Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative Paperback - 1999
by Michael Taussig
Add to wish list
Reader reviews for Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
Write a review for this book
Important Terms and Guidelines
- Please focus on the book’s content and context. Also, add any personal comments as to how you enjoyed the book. Substantiate your likes and dislikes. You may make comparisons to other books.
- Reviews must be at least 140 characters in length.
- Please do not reveal critical plot elements.
- This is not a help line. Contact customer support if you need help.
Your review must not include:
- Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other insulting language not suitable for public domain
- Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers or websites.
- Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other contact information.
- Overly critical comments about other reviews or reviewers
- Time-sensitive material (i.e. promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.)
- Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information
From the publisher
From the jacket flap
Defacement asks what happens when something precious is despoiled. It begins with the notion that such activity is attractive in its very repulsion, and that it creates something sacred even in the most secular of societies and circumstances. In specifying the human face as the ideal type for thinking through such violation, this book raises the issue of secrecy as the depth that seems to surface with the tearing of surface. This surfacing is made all the more subtle and ingenious, not to mention everyday, by the deliberately partial exposures involved in "the public secret"--defined as what is generally known but, for one reason or another, cannot easily be articulated.
Arguing that this sort of knowledge ("knowing what not to know") is the most powerful form of social knowledge, Taussig works with ideas and motifs from Nietzsche, William Burroughs, Elias Canetti, Georges Bataille, and the ethnography of unmasking in so-called primitive societies in order to extend his earlier work on mimesis and transgression. Underlying his concern with defacement and the public secret is the search for a mode of truth telling that unmasks, but only to reenchant, thereby underlining Walter Benjamin's notion that "truth is not a matter of exposure of the secret, but a revelation that does justice to it."
Arguing that this sort of knowledge ("knowing what not to know") is the most powerful form of social knowledge, Taussig works with ideas and motifs from Nietzsche, William Burroughs, Elias Canetti, Georges Bataille, and the ethnography of unmasking in so-called primitive societies in order to extend his earlier work on mimesis and transgression. Underlying his concern with defacement and the public secret is the search for a mode of truth telling that unmasks, but only to reenchant, thereby underlining Walter Benjamin's notion that "truth is not a matter of exposure of the secret, but a revelation that does justice to it."
Details
- Title Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
- Author Michael Taussig
- Binding Paperback
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 328
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Stanford University Press, Stanford
- Publication date 1999-09-01
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Illustrated
- ISBN 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Weight 1.16 lbs (0.53 kg)
- Dimensions 8.98 x 6.02 x 0.81 in (22.81 x 15.29 x 2.06 cm)
- Category Sociology
- Library of Congress subjects Ethnology - Philosophy, Secrecy
- Library of Congress Catalogue Number 99027085
- Dewey Decimal Code 305.800
About the author
More Copies for Sale
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Michael Taussig
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 10
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$53.16A$19.12 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$53.16
A$19.12
Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Taussig, Michael
- Used
- Good
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Edition
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 1
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$40.26Free Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$40.26
Free Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement
by Taussig, Michael,
- Used
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 5
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$41.74A$5.72 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$41.74
A$5.72
Delivery to USA
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Michael Taussig
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 10
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$57.31A$19.12 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$57.31
A$19.12
Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement
by Taussig, Michael,
- New
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 5
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$54.12A$5.72 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$54.12
A$5.72
Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Taussig, Michael
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Used
- Edition
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 1
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$56.69Free Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$56.69
Free Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Taussig, Michael
- New
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- New
- Edition
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 6
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$59.87Free Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$59.87
Free Delivery to USA
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Michael Taussigg
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Very Good Condition
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 1
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$45.00A$19.50 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$45.00
A$19.50
Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Taussig, Michael
- Used
- Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 1
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$83.42Free Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$83.42
Free Delivery to USA
Stock photo: cover may vary
Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative
by Michael Taussig
- New
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804732000 / 0804732000
- Quantity available
- 3
- Seller
- Item price
-
A$92.68A$5.72 Delivery to USA
Show details
Add to wish list
Item price
A$92.68
A$5.72
Delivery to USA
