The story of joy : from the Bible to late Romanticism / Adam Potkay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Potkay, Adam, 1961-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Joy.

Joy--History.

Joy in literature.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge Univ. Press, [2007]

Summary:

Joy is an experience of reunion or fulfilment, of desire at least temporarily laid to rest, of a good thing that comes to pass or seems sure to happen soon. In this wide-ranging and highly original book, Adam Potkay explores the concept of joy, distinguishing it from related concepts such as happiness and ecstasy. He goes on to trace the literary and intellectual history of joy in the Western tradition, from Aristotle, the Bible and Provencal troubadours through contemporary culture, centering on British and German works from the Reformation through Romanticism. Describing the complex interconnections between literary art, ethics, and religion, Potkay offers fresh readings of Spenser, Shakespeare, Fielding, Schiller, English Romantic poets, Wilde, and Yeats. The Story of Joy will be of special interest to scholars of the Renaissance to the late Romantic period, but will also appeal to readers interested in the changing perceptions of joy over time.

Contents:

Introduction: What is joy? 1

1 Religious joy: The ethics of oneness from the Bible to Aquinas 30

2 Erotic joi: The troubadour tradition 50

3 The theology of joy and joylessness: Luther to Crusoe 73

4 Ethical joy in the age of enlightenment 95

5 The joys of doing and of being: Wordsworth and his Victorian legacy 121

6 Joy and aesthetics: Coleridge to Wilde 139

7 Post-Christian prophesies of forgiveness and exaltation 162

8 Tragic joy and the spirit of music: Wagner, Nietzsche, Yeats 193

Conclusion: The career of joy in the twentieth century 220.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-297) and index.

ISBN:

9780521879118

0521879116

OCLC:

149011928