What Monks Want: Asceticism and Austerity Across the Global Anglophone

Catalog description

Today, the word “austerity” is strongly associated with harsh economic policies that force people to live with less. But what if a person voluntarily embraces an austere lifestyle? In this course, we will consider the figure of the ascetic—an individual who leads a life of severe self-discipline and restraint—across an expansive range of literature from the Global Anglophone, such as Frankenstein, In the Castle of My Skin, Nervous Conditions, The Inheritance of Loss, and Normal People. Why would an individual place such demanding restrictions on their everyday life, and what new perspectives could the extremities of asceticism provide on our own lives?