The Seduction of Pessimism in the Novel: Eros, Failure, and the Quarrel with Philosophy

Author:   Tom Ribitzky
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN:  

9781666901399


Pages:   522
Publication Date:   18 October 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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The Seduction of Pessimism in the Novel: Eros, Failure, and the Quarrel with Philosophy


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Overview

The Seduction of Pessimism in the Novel: Eros, Futility, and the Quarrel with Philosophy explores the novel as a response to the Platonic myth that narrates the rift at the core of our being. Eros is supposedly the consolation for this rift, but the history of the novel documents its expression as one of frustrated desires, neuroses, anxieties, and cosmic doom. As if repeating the trauma from that original split in Plato—a split that also divides philosophy from literature—the novel treats eros as a site of loss and grief, from the medieval romances to Goethe, Emily Brontë, Proust, Mann, Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Nabokov. The pessimism that emerges from this eros, tells us something fundamental about who we are, something that only the novel can say. At a time when both education and leisure are increasingly ignoring the novel’s imperative to sit with ambiguity, complexity, and contingency, and as we are hurtling toward a bleak future of climate catastrophe and political instability, the novel is one of the last bastions of humanity even as it is quickly being eroded.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tom Ribitzky
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.80cm , Height: 3.50cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.866kg
ISBN:  

9781666901399


ISBN 10:   1666901393
Pages:   522
Publication Date:   18 October 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Chapter One: The Genre of Failure Chapter Two: Kicking and Screaming: Pessimism Between Etymology and Entomology Chapter Three: Albertine’s Absence Chapter Four: Failed Consolations in Plato’s Shadow Chapter Five: From a Failed Theory of the Novel to a Novel of Failed Theories Chapter Six: The Criminality and Illegitimacy of the Novel Chapter Seven: Consternations Chapter Eight: Constellations Chapter Nine: “A Globed Compacted Thing”: Woolf’s Cosmogony of Love and the Paradox of Failure in To the Lighthouse Chapter Ten: Cosmic Pessimism in Lady Chatterley’s Lover: D.H. Lawrence’s Tristan Legend for the Twentieth Century Chapter Eleven: “A Last Mirage of Wonder and Hopelessness”: Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” as a Shadow Text of Nabokov’s Lolita Chapter Twelve: Kierkegaard’s Kiss: A Contribution to a Theory of the Novel Chapter Thirteen: In Search of Lost Being Chapter Fourteen: Seduction Against Production: The Novel as a Tool of Pedagogy in a World Doomed to Neoliberal Optimism Conclusion: Concluding Unscientific Postscript Bibliography About the Author

Reviews

""[Tom Ribitzky argues] that mimesis and its study are central to who we are, to how we understand a world indifferent to our pain. To appreciate this work of art, the novel, is one of our last hopes. Beyond the increasing pressure to treat students as consumers rather than as global citizens or 'to subordinate academic pursuits to matters of customer service' there remains the challenge to awaken them, to revive some measure of collective enchantment with storytelling. It is that need that makes this treatise valuable. It is that need for cultural reflection that urges that this book be published and circulated to thoughtful and concerned readers.""


Author Information

Tom Ribitzky has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from The Graduate Center (CUNY).

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