Democracy and the Death of Shame
Political Equality and Social Disturbance

This book explores shame as a politically charged idea that is disavowed, invoked, and negotiated in moments of democratic struggle.

Jill Locke (Author)

9781107635906, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 June 2017

216 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.4 cm, 0.34 kg

'Democracy and the Death of Shame is an insightful and timely work, engaging with many contemporary debates regarding the politics of shame. It will be of interest to feminist scholars, political theorists, and philosophers who are concerned with shame and its role in history and politics.' Luna Dolezal, Hypatia Reviews Online (www.hypatiareviews.org)

Is shame dead? With personal information made so widely available, an eroding public/private distinction, and a therapeutic turn in public discourse, many seem to think so. People across the political spectrum have criticized these developments and sought to resurrect shame in order to protect privacy and invigorate democratic politics. Democracy and the Death of Shame reads the fear that 'shame is dead' as an expression of anxiety about the social disturbance endemic to democratic politics. Far from an essential supplement to democracy, the recurring call to 'bring back shame' and other civilizing mores is a disciplinary reaction to the work of democratic citizens who extend the meaning of political equality into social realms. Rereadings from the ancient Cynics to the mid-twentieth century challenge the view that shame is dead and show how shame, as a politically charged idea, is disavowed, invoked, and negotiated in moments of democratic struggle.

Part I. Shame's Allure: Introduction. The mythology of Aid?s
1. The lament that shame is dead
Part II. Unashamed Citizens: 2. 'A Socrates gone mad': Plato's lament and the threat of cynic shamelessness
3. Rousseau's pariahs, Rousseau's laments: pudeur and the authentic ideal in revolutionary France
Part III. Contamination and Lamentation: 4. Furious democracy: nineteenth-century 'slut shaming', Indian removal, and the ascent of the 'ill-bred' man
5. Arendt's lament: the death of shame and the rise of political children
Conclusion. Is shame necessary?

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX]