Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing
Brand: Cornell University Press
Categories: Books, Biographies & Memoirs, Professionals & Academics


Used Book in Good Condition

Dimensions: 6 x 0.58 x 9 inches
Reading age: 18 years and up
ISBN-13: 978-0801488634
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080148863X
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Print length: 256 pages
Publication date: October 22, 2003
subtitle: Paperback – October 22, 2003
author: Visit Amazon's G. Thomas Couser Page search results G. Thomas Couser
review: Editorial Reviews Review "Couser cares about all biographical subjects and the various authoring permutations that exist, but he is especially concerned with the truly vulnerable: the very young and old, illiterate, disabled, mentally impaired, institutionalized, jailed, unborn, or dead―anyone, who must relinquish rights in order to bring a biographical account into existence. The issues are manifold and no one who reads this study will ever be able to consider a formal overview of a person's life―whether biographical or autobiographical, whether authored or ghost-written, whether written or cinematic―in quite the same way.... Couser raises so many possibilities and problems, many that would never occur even to a sophisticated, knowledgeable, and caring scholar, that one is awestruck with trepidation." ― The Journal of Information Studies "What responsibilities do 'life writers' have to others' asks the scholar Couser, an English professor at Hofstra University. He urges the embrace of key tenets of bioethics: respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, and beneficence." ― The Chronicle of Higher Education "Clear to me in this reading is that no matter who we are, we are all potentially vulnerable subjects.... I highly recommend this book to anyone studying ethics, life writing, or any of the chapter subjects." ― The Review of Disability Studies "Thomas Couser's Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing explores the moral perils of speaking for those who either cannot speak for themselves or can give no meaningful consent to being depicted by others. The range of cases Couser entertains is remarkably broad, and many of them are fascinating.... Vulnerable Subjects is a fine read, opening up a discussion about the ethics of representing vulnerable others that is long overdue. Couser has performed a valuable service by directing our attention to this underexplored issue, and we may perhaps leave it to others to continue the work that he has here begun." ― Literature and Medicine "When may life writing violate the privacy of its subject? This question is the theme of this interesting, accessible examination of quandaries of authorial ethics.... Highly recommended." ― Choice Review "What are our responsibilities to others when we write about their lives? And how should lives be valued? Searching for answers to these hard questions, G. Thomas Couser grapples with a wide range of sensitive problem cases. His conclusions are judicious and never prescriptive. There is no better guide than Couser to life writing today. Vulnerable Subjects is an absorbing and important book." -- Paul John Eakin, author of How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves About the Author G. Thomas Couser is Professor of English at Hofstra University and the author of Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing ; Altered Egos: Authority in American Autobiography ; and American Autobiography: The Prophetic Mode . Read more