SUCKING UP: ON SYCOPHANTS AND SYCOPHANCY

Book ID/图书代码： 08900014B72221

English Summary/英文概要： This book examines sycophancy and sycophants, beginning with the early appearance of the type in Aristophanes’ Plutus (in which the sycophant is a kind of informer), following its transformations through history and literature, and examining more modern manifestations, including modern business culture and the profession of so-called “image management.” The book will be short, briskly paced, and insouciant. The authors take heart in the success of Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit (Princeton University Press, 2005). They admire Frankfurt’s combination of brevity and audacity, but will produce an account of sycophancy that is more expansive and more historically informed. The authors have learned a great deal as well from Sarah Bakewell’s How to Live, in which she pursues her subject through three entwined topics: Montaigne’s biography, the publication history of his book, and his repeated answers to the question of “how to live.” Now for the overwhelming question, one hinted at in literature and implicit in image management research: Are we all, in this post-industrial workplace, sycophants? And further, as we recall the blindness of Proust’s narrator, that “hysterical little sycophant,” who only after a bruising series of encounters recognizes his propensity for sucking-up, how would we know if we were? The picture of the workplace provided by business and career advice literature assumes that the sycophant is conscious of his ingratiation—that his flatteries and abasements are deployed as a means to an end, a version that offers control and perhaps distance from sucking-up. Depictions in literature, however, suggest a far less instrumental relation between sycophant and sycophancy.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本书针对逢迎现象与逢迎者进行深入探讨，从其起源于阿里斯托芬的剧作《财神》（其中逢迎者作为一种消息传递人而存在），至其在历史与文学史上的发展变化，并就其在现代社会中的表现形式，包括现代商业文化以及所谓的“形象管理”等职业进行深刻地剖析。全书简短精炼，节奏明快，文风轻松愉悦；哈里•G•弗兰克福特的《论胡言乱语》（普林斯通大学出版社，2005）的大获成功更是鼓舞了本书的作者们。他们欣赏弗兰克福特融简洁与大胆于一体，但他们更致力于用更加有价值且赋予历史厚重感的口吻讲述逢迎文化。萨拉•贝克维尔的《如何活着》也让本书的作者们受益匪浅，该书中，萨拉通过三个紧密联系的话题就其主题展开讨论：《蒙恬传》，该书的出版历史，以及蒙恬本人就“如何活着”这个问题的反复回答。如今，针对这一宏大的问题，不仅在文学史上有所暗示，同时也在形象管理研究中有所涉及：是否在当今这一后工业化的工作场所中，我们人人都是逢迎者？或者更为深入地思考，当我们回忆起普鲁斯特笔下的盲目叙述者在遭遇了一系列的挫折后认识到了自己的软弱逢迎的倾向，并称其为“歇斯底里的小马屁精”时，我们又如何得知自己与他不同？各类商业和职场建议文案中所描绘的工作场所理所当然地认为逢迎者均是在有意识的让自己处于更有利的处境中---其运用谄媚逢迎与屈尊俯就以达目标，这样一种形式不仅收驰有度，更可以避免一味的懦弱恭顺。然而在文学作品中，逢迎者与逢迎现象本身则并没有那么深刻地导向关系。（DC）

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： 黛博拉•帕克是一名意大利语教授，弗吉尼亚大学西意葡语系院长。她出版有一部关于但丁的著作并发表有多篇关于但丁研究的文章，目前担任但丁世界(www.worldofdante.org)的总编辑，这是一个交互式媒体网站，致力于但丁戏剧的学习与教学活动。黛博拉有长达25年的戏剧教学经验，并熟知诗歌文学。该项目受到了许多基金会的大力支持，其中包括NEH, Gladys Krieble Delmas 基金, 以及人文学科先进技术研究院等。

马克•帕克斯詹姆斯麦迪逊大学文学院院长。他出版有关于但丁研究的论文以及翁贝托•艾柯的The Name of the Rose的研究论文。他著有2部关于十九世纪英国文学杂志的书籍，并参与创作了一部关于DVD时代的电影的作品。

Deborah Parker is Professor of Italian and Chair of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Virginia. She has published a monograph and several articles on Dante, and she is the General Editor of The World of Dante (www.worldofdante.org), an interactive media site created for the study and teaching of Dante’s Comedy. She has taught the Comedy for over 25 years and knows the poem intimately. The project has been supported by a number of foundations, including the NEH, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities.

Mark Parker is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at James Madison University. He has published essays on Dante and on Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. He has written two books on literary magazines in 19th century Britain, as he has co-authored a book on film in the DVD era.

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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：Rights already licensed:•English language, TBD

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