Victorian Pain

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Political
Cover of the book Victorian Pain by Rachel Ablow, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rachel Ablow ISBN: 9781400885176
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: May 30, 2017
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Rachel Ablow
ISBN: 9781400885176
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: May 30, 2017
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, Victorian Pain offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain.

Rachel Ablow provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. She explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers.

A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, Victorian Pain shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, Victorian Pain offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain.

Rachel Ablow provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. She explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers.

A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, Victorian Pain shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book The Posthuman Dada Guide by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book How Old Is the Universe? by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book What We Owe Iraq by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Law's Dream of a Common Knowledge by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes, and Other Adventures in Applied Mathematics (New in Paperback) by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Max Weber in America by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book In the Interest of Others by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Environment, Scarcity, and Violence by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Split Decisions by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Kant and Skepticism by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book The Princeton Guide to Evolution by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book The I Ching by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book How Evolution Shapes Our Lives by Rachel Ablow
Cover of the book Good Form by Rachel Ablow
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy