The Ethics of Writing: Authorship and Legacy in Plato and Nietzsche

Beginning amidst the tombs of the 'dead' God, and the crematoria at Auschwitz, this book confronts Nietzsche's legacy through the lens of Plato. The key question is how authors can protect against the possible 'deviant readings' of future readers and assess 'the risk of writing'. Burke recommends an ethic of 'discursive containment'. The ethical question is the question of our times. Within critical theory, it has focused on the act of reading. This study reverses the terms of inquiry to analyse the ethical composition of the act of writing. What responsibility does an author bear for his legacy? Do 'catastrophic' misreadings of authors (e.g. Plato, Nietzsche) testify to authorial recklessness? These and other questions are the starting-point for a theory of authorial ethics.

Key Features

* An original, provocative and arresting construction of a new debate: the responsibility of authors for the effects of their works
* Courageous discussion of catastrophic readings which played a part in the establishment of totalitarian regimes such as Nazism, Fascism, and Communism
* An extension of the author's pioneering work on authorship into its ethical and political significance