On Good and Evil and the Grey Zone Paperback - 2017

Mixes art, politics and ethics to explore the terrors of the modern age, from Auschwitz to Abu Ghraib What are we to make of good and evil in our world? How can works of the imagination help us? This collection of essays puts art to work in the service of ethical and political inquiry. They consider art as freedom from moral narrowness and corner perspectives, as Nietzsche said, and they treat the artist as the crucial moral witness of our troubled times. Like Alex Danchev's acclaimed previous collection, On Art and War and Terror (EUP, 2009), they take their inspiration from Seamus Heaney's dictum that 'the imaginative transformation of human life is the means by which we can most truly grasp and comprehend it'. On Good and Evil and the Grey Zone is a book of blasphemers, world menders, troublemakers, torturers, and turbulent priests of every persuasion. Alex Danchev is Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews. He has held visiting positions at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, St Antony's College, Oxford, and King's College, London.He is the author of a number of prize-winning biographies, most recently Czanne: A Life (2012). Praise for On Art and War and Terror: 'The range of these beautifully crafted essays is often dazzling. At his best, Danchev reveals himself to be a gifted and profound essayist.' The Independent 'Beautifully lucid and thoughtful essays on the most difficult issues of our age and, in particular, the nature of humanity in times of conflict.' Times Higher Education 'One of the most important books I have had the pleasure to read in a long time ... lucid, illuminating, mesmerizing ... a profound reading experience.' Millennium: Journal of International Studies '[A] powerful, united and beautifully strange book ... Real interdisciplinary work goes on when there is something unifying and unique beyond, or perhaps below, the academy's usual disciplinary boundaries. This is the case with Alex Danchev's work, and with this book.' Times Higher Education Cover image: Figure at an Inquiry No. 5, John Keane, 2010, Oil on linen 215 x 200 cm (c) John Keane, collection Nick Taylor Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com