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Overview"What is authority? How is it constituted? How ought one understand the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) relations between authority and coercion? Between authorized and subversive speech? In this analysis, Bruce Lincoln argues that authority is not an entity but an effect. More precisely, it is an effect that depends for its power on the combination of the right speaker, the right speech, the right staging and props, the right time and place, and an audience historically and culturally conditioned to judge what is right in all these instances and to respond with trust, respect and even reverence. Employing a variety of examples drawn from classical antiquity, Scandinavian law, Cold War scholarship and American presidential politics, Lincoln offers an analysis of the performance of authority, and subversions of it, from ancient times to the present. Using a small set of case studies that highlight critical moments in the construction of authority, he goes on to offer a general examination of ""corrosive"" discourses such as gossip, rumour and curses; the problematic situation of women, who often are barred from the authorizing sphere; the role of religion in the construction of authority; the question of whether authority in the modern and postmodern world differs from its pre-modern counterpart; and a critique of Hannah Arendt's claims that authority has disappeared from political life in the modern world. He does not find a diminution of authority or a fundamental change in the conditions that produce it. Rather, Lincoln finds modern authority splintered, expanded and, in fact, multiplied as the mechanisms for its construction become more complex - and more expensive." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Bruce LincolnPublisher: The University of Chicago Press Imprint: University of Chicago Press Edition: 2nd ed. Dimensions: Width: 14.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.10cm Weight: 0.424kg ISBN: 9780226481975ISBN 10: 0226481972 Pages: 248 Publication Date: 01 January 1995 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Stock Indefinitely Availability: Out of stock Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |