Ashraf H. A. Rushdy - Böcker

Neo-slave Narratives is a study in the political, social, and cultural content of a particular literary form -- the novel of slavery cast as a first-person slave narrative. After discerning the social and historical factors surrounding the first appearance of that literary form in the 1960s, the author explores the complex relationship between nostalgia and critique, while asking how African-American intellectuals at different points between 1976 and 1990 remember and use the site of slavery to represent the crucial cultural debates that arose during the sixties.

In Philosophies of Gratitude, Ashraf H. A. Rushdy explores gratitude as a philosophical concept. The first half of the book traces its significance in fundamental Western moral philosophy and notions of ethics, specifically examining key historical moments and figures in classical antiquity, the early modern era, and the Enlightenment. In the second half of the book, Rushdy focuses on contemporary meanings of gratitude as a sentiment, action, and disposition: how we feel grateful, act grateful, and cultivate grateful being. He identifies these three forms of gratitude to discern various roles our emotions play in our ethical responses to the world around us. Rushdy then discusses how ingratitude, instead of indicating a moral failure, can also act as an important principle and ethical stand against injustice. Rushdy asserts that if we practice gratitude as a moral recognition of the other, then that gratitude varies alongside the different kinds of benefactors who receive it, ranging from the person who provides an expected service or gift, to the divine or natural sources whom we may credit with our very existence. By arguing for the necessity of analyzing gratitude as a philosophical concept, Rushdy reminds us of our capacity and appreciation for gratitude simply as an acknowledgment and acceptance of our humble dependency on and connectedness with our families, friends, communities, environments, and universe.

The Forgiveness of Others claims that forgiveness is a complex and dynamic moral practice that raises metaphysical questions about the meaning of change and of personal identity. When we forgive, we are transformed from one state (resentment, say) and one identity (injured party) to another state and identity (someone forgiving). By looking closely at various accounts of forgiving and being forgiven, and of being unforgiving and unforgiven, this book explores how often we find cases in which we have substitutions as well as transformations. Rushdy focuses on two kinds of substitutions- cases in which we have survivors who forgive on behalf of the absent injured party and cases in which we have proxies who are forgiven on behalf of the wrongdoer. He contends that these substitutions help us more fully understand the dynamic conditions of forgiveness. What might seem to some to be violations of the protocols of forgiveness - being offered by and to “others” - is arguably the crux of forgiveness as a moral practice that transforms those who offer and receive it in a way that represents or effects their transformation. This volume advocates a pluralist approach that traces an alternative path between those who argue that forgiveness is meaningful only if it follows a particularly restrictive paradigm and those who argue that it is meaningless because it is either futile or impossible.

A history of lynching in America over the course of three centuries, from colonial Virginia to twentieth-century Texas"A sophisticated and thought-provoking examination of the historical relationship between the American culture of lynching and the nation’s political traditions.”—William Carrigan, Rowan UniversityAfter observing the varying reactions to the 1998 death of James Byrd Jr. in Texas, called a lynching by some, denied by others, Ashraf Rushdy determined that to comprehend this event he needed to understand the long history of lynching in the United States. In thismeticulously researched and accessibly written interpretive history, Rushdy shows how lynching in America has endured, evolved, and changed in meaning over the course of three centuries, from its origins in early Virginia to the present day.Rushdy argues that we can understand what lynching means in American history by examining its evolution—that is, by seeing how the practice changes in both form and meaning over the course of three centuries, by analyzing the rationales its advocates have made in its defense, and, finally, by explicating its origins. The best way of understanding what lynching has meant in different times, and for different populations, during the course of American history is by seeing both the continuities in the practice over time and the specific features in different forms of lynching in different eras.

African American writers explore the enduring effects of slavery on American society Slavery is America's family secret, says Ashraf Rushdy, a partially hidden phantom that continues to haunt our national imagination. Remembering Generations explores how three contemporary African American writers artistically represent this notion in novels about the enduring effects of slavery on the descendants of slaves in the post-civil rights era. Focusing on Gayl Jones's Corregidora (1975), David Bradley's The Chaneysville Incident (1981), and Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979), Rushdy situates these works in their cultural moment of production, highlighting the ways in which they respond to contemporary debates about race and family. Tracing the evolution of this literary form, he considers such works as Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family (1998), in which descendants of slaveholders expose the family secrets of their ancestors. Remembering Generations examines how cultural works contribute to social debates, how a particular representational form emerges out of a specific historical epoch, and how some contemporary intellectuals meditate on the issue of historical responsibility - of recognizing that the slave past continues to exert an influence on contemporary American society.