Loneliness as a Way of Life
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Book Overview
"What does it mean to be lonely?" Thomas Dumm asks. His inquiry, documented in this book, takes us beyond social circumstances and into the deeper forces that shape our very existence as modern individuals. The modern individual, Dumm suggests, is fundamentally a lonely self. Through reflections on philosophy, political theory, literature, and tragic drama, he proceeds to illuminate a hidden dimension of the human condition. His book shows how loneliness shapes the contemporary division between public and private, our inability to live with each other honestly and in comity, the estranged forms that our intimate relationships assume, and the weakness of our common bonds.
A reading of the relationship between Cordelia and her father in Shakespeare's King Lear points to the most basic dynamic of modern loneliness--how it is a response to the problem of the "missing mother." Dumm goes on to explore the most important dimensions of lonely experience--Being, Having, Loving, and Grieving. As the book unfolds, he juxtaposes new interpretations of iconic cultural texts--Moby-Dick, Death of a Salesman, the film Paris, Texas, Emerson's "Experience," to name a few--with his own experiences of loneliness, as a son, as a father, and as a grieving husband and widower. Written with deceptive simplicity, Loneliness as a Way of Life is something rare--an intellectual study that is passionately personal. It challenges us, not to overcome our loneliness, but to learn how to re-inhabit it in a better way. To fail to do so, this book reveals, will only intensify the power that it holds over us.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0674047885
ISBN13:9780674047884
Release Date:May 2010
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Length:208 Pages
Weight:0.55 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
How we are possessed by our possessions, how we love, how we grieve
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
"Loneliness as a Way of Life" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Dumm's book interview was published on [..] on December 16, 2008.
This book may surprise you.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Though it announces itself as a book about a depressing subject, LONELINESS AS A WAY OF LIFE is surprisingly uplifting Professor Thomas Dumm, who is best know for his academic political works, (including POLITICS OF THE ORDINARY and DEMOCRACY AND PUNISHMENT) does not hide behind his footnotes in this book. In fact, he does not shy away from weaving his own life story into the discussions of great literary and cinematic works and the state of our political world. The result is a narrative that is as intellectual as it is emotional. As thought provoking as it is accessible. It may not be an easy book to read--it is, after all, about loneliness--but this book is truly worth reading. And, then, it is worth rereading.
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