A Biography of Loneliness
The History of an Emotion
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A Biography of Loneliness
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Narrated by:
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Henrietta Meire
About this listen
Despite 21st-century fears of an "epidemic" of loneliness, its history has been sorely neglected. A Biography of Loneliness offers a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience.
Using letters and diaries, philosophical tracts, political discussions, and medical literature from the 18th century to the present, historian of the emotions Fay Bound Alberti argues that loneliness is not a historical, universal phenomenon. It is, in fact, a modern emotion: before 1800, its language did not exist. And where loneliness is identified, it is not always bad, but a complex emotional state that differs according to class, gender, ethnicity, and experience.
Looking at informative case studies such as Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf, A Biography of Loneliness charts the emergence of loneliness as a modern and embodied emotional state.
©2019 Fay Bound Alberti (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about A Biography of Loneliness
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- jordan david crago
- 11-05-23
An interesting argument, but it's not convincing
The core argument is that loneliness is a modern invention which didn't exist before 1800. You can understand why she would argue this, for after all, if loneliness is not a universal emotion, then it is mutable and can be defeated with the one thing all rational people want -- by overthrowing capitalism.
This is noble, but it seems false. Here is a quote from the Epic of Gilgamesh: "I look for friends for companionship, and meet the wild beasts that prowl the wilderness. I am alone. My face is ravaged by sorrow." In Genesis we find: "The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”" And in the 1600s, we find Robert Burton claiming that melancholy is caused by solitude. I'm sure you could find countless other examples of loneliness before 1800.
From an evolutionary perspective, human loneliness makes great sense; we evolved to be in tribes and when we lead depopulated lives, as many modern people do, we become unhappy. From a Christian theological perspective it also makes sense; we were designed in the image of a triune god of three persons in eternal loving relationship, and so relationship is part of who we are and what we need.
If the argument of the book was "Modern culture worsens loneliness" rather than "Modern culture created loneliness", it would be a far more convincing book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-12-20
Not as interesting as it might seem
The description says loudly that "A Biography of Loneliness offers a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience. " No new radical interpretation is actually given. The whole book is just about reading the definitions of "loneliness" and its family words (solitude, isolation and others) from Cambridge Dictionary and the statistics of loneliness depending on age, social status, social networks and so on (mostly from UK).
I was hoping to have a large philosophical view on the state of being alone in this book but it seems that philosophy is dead in our century. Better take Stoics, Nietzsche and the classics if you want to understand yourself and your loneliness.
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