Group Identity in the Renaissance World
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 8/22/2011
EAN 9781107003606, ISBN10: 1107003601
Hardcover, 394 pages, 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
This book argues that the Renaissance, long associated with the historical development of individualism, in fact witnessed the emergence of radically new concepts of group identity. From the end of the fifteenth century, rapidly accelerating globalization intensified cross-cultural encounters, destabilized older categories of large- and small-group identity and contributed to the rise of new hybrid group concepts. Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, linguistics and social network theory, this book advances a theory of 'group subjectivity' - perceptions, fantasies, and patterns of belief that guide the behaviors of individuals in groups and of collectives. Considering not only Europe, but also South Asia, Africa, the Sugar Islands of the Atlantic, the Caribbean world and Brazil, Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski reconsiders the Renaissance in global context, presenting micro-histories of group identity formation, and persuasively argues that we think of that transformational era as a 're-networking' of the world and its peoples, rather than a 'rebirth'.
Introduction
the group and the individual
recollecting Burckhardt's Renaissance
1. Lacoön
the group as a work of art
2. Of cannibals and caraÃÂbas
the group as a mouth
3. Utopia
the prenascent group
4. The Buddha's tooth relic
the group mystery
5. Hamlet's machine
the inorganic group
6. The animal hospitals of Gujarat
the collective unbound
Conclusion
post-Freudian thoughts on the future history of groups.