IDIOT LOVE and the Elements of Intimacy

This book turns our search for intimacy on its head, suggesting that our way to creativity in love may be through idiocy. The book takes its readers on a journey through the work of Plato and Melanie Klein in theorizing the dynamics of intimacy while exploring some of the paradoxical aspects of love in works by Fyodor Dostoevsky and French filmmaker Catherine Breillat. Revisiting core concepts of how we think about relationships, the book lays out a model for relational breakdownthe idiot lovecyclein which we are constantly in the flux between seeing ourselves and seeing the other. Effecting close readings of literary, philosophical, and psychoanalytical sources, the book draws on parallels between these fields of inquiry while tracing their shared intellectual genealogy, suggesting that the tension between Narcissus and Cassandra, with its inherent conflicts, is also the space through which love emerges from intimacy.

Employs concepts from literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis to explore fictional portrayals of breakdown in intimate relations Combines theoretical research with textual analysis Promotes reflection on the theme of love by providing new conceptual tools an approaches that broaden an understanding of intimacy

Autorentext

David Stromberg is a writer, translator, and literary scholar. His books include Baddies (2009), Narrative Faith (2017), and an edited collection of stories for children, In the Land of Happy Tears: Yiddish Tales for Modern Times (2018). He lives in Jerusalem.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Prologue: Depths and Shallows.- 2: Love and Intimacy.- Chapter 3: Death and Tragedy.- Chapter 4: Idiocy and Irony.- Chapter 5: IDIOT LOVE.- Chapter 6: Anxiety and Wisdom.- Chapter 7: Epilogue: Narcissus and Cassandra.