Contours of Privacy—The Ethnology of a Social and Aesthetic Concept

This monograph consists of four sections: Privacy and the Private, Public and Private, Invasions of Privacy: Surveillance and Voyeurism, and the Erosion of Privacy. The first chapter tries to locate this entity (“What is privacy and why does it belong to us? Is it an enclosure, an order of things?”), recounts its history, and follows its trails of meaning under three categories: ?the contents of the self, the shameful private, and “in private.” It goes on to trace the dialectic between privacy and publication and explores the paradoxes of publication, among other things. The second chapter surveys the oppositions and exchanges in what Pierre Bourdieu has called ?one of the most fundamental inscriptions made on space, the division of the world into public and private. Again, it explores the history of the division and goes on to discuss the public sphere models of Jurgen Habermas (and the many critiques of his model that followed), Philippe Aries, and Roger Chartier.

Professor Roth has his Ph.D from the University of Chicago and has taughtEnglish at the University of Minnesota for some years. He is the author of numerous research monographs and articles.