Overview

In a humane world, cruelty should not exist, and yet it has been a feature of our societies since time immemorial. From individual acts of cruelty to systematic torture and mass murder, cruelty has been humanity’s constant companion, attesting to a darker side of human nature. Cruelty involves the use of violence but it is more than this, since it is organized and calculated; its intention is to inflict pain and suffering on others, even to destroy the other. Cruelty is perhaps the ultimate form of violence in which the extermination of the other is staged as a threat in order to make others compliant or instil in them the fear of death. In this wide-ranging cultural history, Wolfgang Müller-Funk examines the ways in which different thinkers and authors – from Herodotus to Nietzsche, from Seneca to Musil and Koestler – have conceptualized and tried to make sense of a phenomenon we would prefer to ignore. He seeks to unveil the conditions under which an economy of cruelty emerges, in which violence is calculated and becomes a quasi-natural matter of course. The economy of cruelty involves the efficient use of means to pursue irrational goals. It also involves discourses and narrative patterns that legitimize organized violence and neutralize emotions, such as empathy and compassion, that would restrain or obstruct the pursuit of cruelty. This disturbing inquiry into the nature of cruelty and its role in human culture will be of interest to students and scholars throughout the humanities and to a wide general readership.

Full Product Details

9781509563951

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Wolfgang Müller-Funk's stunningly comprehensive and lucidly written book sheds much-needed light on the darker regions of human nature. It analyses cruelty in its profoundly disturbing dimensions, recognizing its place in different cultural formations from antiquity to modern times. It focuses on the manifestations of cruelty in modern literature from Ernst Jünger to Mario Vargas Llosa and in cultural theory from Nietzsche to Arthur Koestler and René Girard. Moreover, it examines the performativity of cruelty as an enactment of evil, from the lustful cruelty of de Sade's proverbial exploitation of this sinister drive to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and Jean Améry's reflections on torture in the concentration camp. The book is an indispensable read for anyone wanting to understand the weird fascination with this anthropological phenomenon."" Rüdiger Görner, Queen Mary University of London ""In spite of the sad content of its title, this book brought me much joy, both because it is so rich, diverse and carefully argued, and because of its explicit affiliation with the field of 'cultural analysis', as distinct from 'cultural studies'. Müller-Funk presents, defines and distinguishes the great variety of usages and connotations of cruelty, in readings that are close, detailed, sensitive and true to the sources. And the sources are many, drawn from different historical and geographical backgrounds. He thereby demonstrates brilliantly and insightfully the advantages of the cultural analysis approach."" Mieke Bal, University of Amsterdam

Author Information

Wolfgang Müller-Funk is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna.

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