Weakness: A Literary and Philosophical History

Charts the history of weakness in a selection of canonical works in literature and philosophy. Beginning with Plato and Aristotle, this book explores weakness as it interpreted by Lao Tzu, Nietzsche, the Romantics, Dickens and Modernists. It examines what feminist critics Elaine Showalter and Luce Irigaray make of the figure of the weaker vessel.