| A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion Contributor(s): Bound Alberti, Fay (Author) |
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ISBN: 0198811349 ISBN-13: 9780198811343 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $28.49 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Modern - 21st Century - Psychology | History - Philosophy | Language |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.3" W x 8.6" (0.95 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 21st Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Despite 21st-century fears of an 'epidemic' of loneliness, its history has been sorely neglected. A Biography of Loneliness offers a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience. Using letters and diaries, philosophical tracts, political discussions, and medical literature from the eighteenth century to the present, historian of the emotions Fay Bound Alberti argues that loneliness is not an ahistorical, universal phenomenon. It is, in fact, a modern emotion: before 1800, its language did not exist. And where loneliness is identified, it is not always bad, but a complex emotional state that differs according to class, gender, ethnicity and experience. Looking at informative case studies such as Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf, A Biography of Loneliness charts the emergence of loneliness as a modern and embodied emotional state. |