Description
Book SynopsisThis study takes up Thoreau’s work as an early and prophetic diagnosis of the modern crisis of relationships between the individual and society. Thus Adorno’s formulation of «a melancholy of science» finds its predecessor in Thoreau’s famous dictum from the early pages of
Walden that we live our lives in quiet desperation. The author reads Thoreau’s
Journal as an attempt to refute tendencies towards the narrowing of life to being understood merely in techno-economic categories which threaten the quality of the development of both the individual and the community. Thus in literary scholarship it is essential to find strategies which will critically contribute to understanding and transforming what Auerbach called «ways of life» and what Barthes referred to as «living-together».
Trade Review«A book like this deserves to be lauded in many voices [...].»
(Mark S. Burrows, Polish Journal for American Studies 10/2016)
Table of ContentsContents: Community – The human – Non-human – Friendship – America – Wilderness – Habitation – Perception – Henry David Thoreau – Roland Barthes – Erich Auerbach.
