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Resentment Rising

Humanities, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, neu{at}ucsc.edu

Oatley's discussion of "resentment" in Othello works with an unfortunately impoverished notion of resentment, and the narrative of emergence and unfolding that he offers suffers from it. As explicated by Bishop Butler, John Rawls, and other philosophers, resentment rests on moral claims and is to be distinguished on that basis from envy and Nietzschean ressentiment. W. H. Auden, in "The Joker in the Pack," provides more persuasive insight into the dark destructive malicious envy that motivates Iago. Such destructive aims are as characteristic of humans as "relational goals," and must be attended to if we are to learn from literature about ourselves.

Key Words: envy • moral emotions • philosophy • resentment

References

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• Bataille, G. (1985 [1933]). The notion of expenditure. In A. Stoekl (Ed.) Visions of excess: Selected writings, 1927-1939 (pp. 116-129). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Bataille, G. (1988). The accursed share: An essay on general economy, (Vol. I) (R. Hurley Trans.). New York: Zone Books. (Original work published 1967).
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Emotion Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 31-32 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1754073908097181


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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Neu, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?