#43090
Mentioned in 1 episodes
Turning Away
The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture
Book •
Benjamin A. Saltzman's 'Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture' examines the gesture of turning away or covering the face across ancient and medieval literature and art, exploring its complex emotional and rhetorical meanings.
Drawing on scenes from Genesis, classical painting, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, and later thinkers, Saltzman shows how the gesture resists simple categorization (shame, grief, disgust, performance) and functions rhetorically and philosophically.
The book moves outward from focused readings to trace the gesture's ripples through intellectual history and modern media, arguing that turning away can be both morally fraught and necessary for reflection and grief.
Saltzman also situates the gesture in contemporary media ecologies, questioning assumptions that looking away is always a moral failure.
Drawing on scenes from Genesis, classical painting, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, and later thinkers, Saltzman shows how the gesture resists simple categorization (shame, grief, disgust, performance) and functions rhetorically and philosophically.
The book moves outward from focused readings to trace the gesture's ripples through intellectual history and modern media, arguing that turning away can be both morally fraught and necessary for reflection and grief.
Saltzman also situates the gesture in contemporary media ecologies, questioning assumptions that looking away is always a moral failure.
Mentioned by
Mentioned in 1 episodes
Mentioned by Hermitix as the book being discussed and by the author to describe its release and scope.
Turning Away from the World / The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture with Benjamin A. Saltzman
