Neat and erudite ... Gros beautifully describes how modernity has rendered us members of 'societies without honour' ... Gros, crisply translated by Andrew James Bliss, wears his learning lightly, but he draws on an extraordinary range of literary, religious, historical, cinematic, psychoanalytic and philosophical descriptions of shame ... But while Gros makes a great theoretical case for the revolutionary potential of shame, it didn’t leave me any more sure that, in reality, alchemically converting one’s shame into collective anger is the most effective mode (or mood) for bringing about social change.
A Philosophy of Shame is never quite sprung. The book extends a rickety rope bridge between psychological shame—the I-must-bury-my-face kind that follows when one is caught being stupid, horny, or poor—and patriotic shame, which fells those in power with its righteous anger ... Gros’s efforts to isolate shame only prove how imbricated it is with guilt, humiliation, remorse, and rage ... That said, Gros still offers a diverting whistle-stop tour.
An academic treatise rich in concept but short on heart ... Old-fashioned ... In order to reckon with shame’s amorphous forms, Gros similarly projects himself into a variety of philosophical stances that often feel more like curious explorations than they do reinforcements of a cohesive statement ... Much of the book is devoted to discussions of sexual abuse, which, when viewed primarily through the lens of literature and philosophy, lands on awkward footing. Ultimately, Gros’ hypothetical, drifting narrative detaches his philosophy from the humanity at the core of his subject. This leaves much of the book in the realm of fanciful inquisition and risks reducing trauma to a series of intellectual quandaries.
