Cohen, Josh. 2014. The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1847085306 [Book]

No full text available

Abstract or Description

The war over private life spreads inexorably. Some seek to expose, invade and steal it, others to protect, conceal and withhold it. Either way, the assumption is that privacy is a possession to be won or lost. But what if what we call private life is the one element in us that we can't possess? Could it be that we're so intent on taking hold of the privacy of others, or keeping hold of our own only because we're powerless to do either? In this groundbreaking book, Josh Cohen uses his experience as a psychoanalyst, literature professor and human being to explore the concept of 'private life' as the presence in us of someone else, an uncanny stranger both unrecognisable and eerily familiar, who can be neither owned nor controlled. Drawing on a dizzying array of characters and concerns, from John Milton and Henry James to Katie Price and Snoopy, from philosophy and the Bible to pornography and late-night TV, The Private Life weaves a richly personal tapestry of ideas and experience. In a culture that floods our lives with light, it asks: how is it that we remain so helplessly in the dark?

Item Type:	Book
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	English and Comparative Literature
Date:	2014
Item ID:	12975
Date Deposited:	26 Aug 2015 13:00
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2017 15:32
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/12975

Edit Record (login required)