Melancholy, love, and time : boundaries of the self in ancient literature / Peter Toohey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toohey, Peter, 1951-

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Classical literature--History and criticism.

Classical literature.

Psychology in literature.

Alienation (Social psychology) in literature.

Mythology, Classical, in literature.

Depression, Mental, in literature.

Melancholy in literature.

Love in literature.

Time in literature.

Self in literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (386 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2004.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Ancient literature features many powerful narratives of madness, depression, melancholy, lovesickness, simple boredom, and the effects of such psychological states upon individual sufferers. Peter Toohey turns his attention to representations of these emotional states in the classical, Hellenistic, and especially the Roman imperial periods in a study that illuminates the cultural and aesthetic significance of this emotionally charged literature. Toohey also examines some of the ways that the "self" was (or was not) formulated in ancient literature, looking at conditions that could be said to endanger the fragile stability of "self" and how the "self," in ancient experience, was reestablished. Ancient representations of suicide, the perception of time, and the formulation of leisure, Toohey argues, challenge the widespread orthodoxy that melancholic emotions were somehow "discovered" during the European Enlightenment. Blending ancient literature, ancient art, modern psychological theory, and modern literature into his interpretive matrix, Toohey concludes that, paradoxically, difficult emotional registers represent key modes for buttressing an individual's sense of self in both the ancient and modern world. Melancholy, Love, and Time makes an important contribution to classical studies, comparative literature, cultural studies, the history of psychology and medicine, as well as to the burgeoning field of the history of emotions.

Contents:

I. Blurring the Boundaries of the Self

1. Sorrow without Cause: Periodizing Melancholia and Depression 15

2. Medea's Lovesickness: Eros and Melancholia 59

3. Seasickness: Boredom, Nausia, and the Self 104

4. Acedia: Madness and the Epidemiology of Individuality 132

II. Remapping the Boundaries of the Self

5. The Myth of Suicide: Volitional Independence and Problematized Control in the First Century C.E. 161

6. Time's Passing: Catastrophes, Trimalchio, and Melancholy 197

7. Passing Time: Hunting, Poetry, and Leisure 222

III. The Alienated Personality

8. The Mirror Stage: Hostius Quadra and the Alienated Self 261

Appendix Giorgio de Chirico, Time, Odysseus, Melancholy, and Intestinal Disorder / Kathleen Toohey 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-374) and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472025596

Publisher Number:

10.3998/mpub.16583

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.