The story of joy : from the Bible to late Romanticism
This original book explores the concept and history of joy in the Western tradition. Winner of the 2009 Harry Levin prize, The Story of Joy will be of interest to scholars of the Renaissance to the late Romantic period, but will also appeal to readers interested in the history of emotions.
Print Book, English, 2007
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.], 2007
XIII, 304 p. 24 cm
9780521879118, 0521879116
1014750850
Preface; Introduction: what is a joy?; 1. Religious joy: the ethics of oneness from the Bible to Aquinas; 2. Erotic joy: the Troubadour tradition; 3. The theology of joy and joylessness: Luther to Crusoe; 4. Ethical joy in the Age of Enlightenment; 5. The joys of doing and of being: Wordsworth and his Victorian legacy; 6. Joy and aesthetics: Coleridge to Wilde; 7. Post-Christian prophesies of forgiveness and exaltation; 8. Tragic joy and the spirit of music: Wagner, Nietzsche, Yeats; Conclusion: the career of joy in the twentieth century; Bibliography; Index.