The Eudaimonic Turn: Well-Being in Literary Studies PDF
Preview The Eudaimonic Turn: Well-Being in Literary Studies
The Eudaimonic Turn The Eudaimonic Turn Well-Being in Literary Studies Edited by James O. Pawelski and D. J. Moores FAIRLEIGHDICKINSONUNIVERSITYPRESS Madison•Teaneck PublishedbyFairleighDickinsonUniversityPress Co-publishedwithTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com 10ThornburyRoad,PlymouthPL67PP,UnitedKingdom Copyright©2013byTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems, withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote passagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData TheEudaimonicturn:well-beinginliterarystudies/editedbyJamesO.PawelskiandD.J.Moores. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-1-61147-528-9(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN978-1-61147-529-6(electronic) 1.Peaceofmindinliterature.2.Happinessinliterature.3.Well-being—Psychologicalaspects.4. Booksandreading—Psychologicalaspects.5.Qualityoflife.6.Satisfaction.I.Pawelski,JamesO., 1967–II.Moores,D.J PN56.H27E932013 809'.93353—dc23 2012038492 ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica ForSuzieandLiam(J.O.P) AndforTatsiana(D.J.M.) withloveandgratitude Contents Acknowledgments ix Foreword xi AdamPotkay Introduction:WhatIstheEudaimonicTurn?andTheEudaimonic TurninLiteraryStudies 1 JamesO.PawelskiandD.J.Moores 1 Pound’sChallengetoRancière’sTreatmentofthe “AestheticRegime”:WhyNietzscheIsNecessaryfora PositiveAccountofModernismintheArts 65 CharlesAltieri 2 ThoreauandHealth:Physician,Naturalist,Metaphysician 81 JamesEngell 3 FallingfromTrees:ArborescentProsodyinJohnClare’s TreeElegies 97 ErinLaffordandEmmaMason 4 Happiness,Catharsis,andtheLiteraryCure 115 JohnChanningBriggs 5 Ramblers,Hikers,Vagabonds,andFlâneurs:America’s PeripateticRomanticsandtheRitualsofHealthyWalking 135 MichaelWest 6 Spenser’s“vertuous...discipline”andHumanFlourishing 155 PaolaBaseotto 7 TheChoicesofCanYouForgiveHer?:LiteraryRealism, Freedom,andContentment 171 AmanpalGarcha 8 TheCrossesWeBear:Religion,Readers,andWoman’s IntellectinAugustaJaneEvans’sSt.Elmo 189 DavidBordelon 9 Milton’s“L’Allegro”and“IlPenseroso”:PropheticJoy Anticipated 209 DanielO’Day vii viii Contents 10 OnBecomingNeighborRosicky:WillaCather,William James,andtheConstructsofWell-Being 227 ChristineE.Kephart 11 TheCareerofJoyintheTwentiethCentury 247 AdamPotkay Index 265 AbouttheContributors 269 Acknowledgments ThisvolumeisthefruitofafriendshipthatstartedintheSpringof2010, when we, the editors, met at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center. The initial meeting sparked several conversations, oneofwhichinvolvedthepsychologistMartySeligman,abouttheinter- sectionsofpositivepsychologyandliterature.Throughthesediscussions, wediscoveredmuchcommongroundinourexplorationsofeudaimonia and a shared perspective on how to carry that work forward in the do- main of literary studies. One of us (Pawelski) had published a book on William Jamesandtheeudaimonicaspectsof epiphanicexperiences.He was also preparing to teach a graduate course on the “Humanities and Human Flourishing” while leading efforts to explore connections be- tweenthescienceofwell-beingandthevariousdisciplinesinthehuman- ities. The other (Moores) was a specialist in literature who had explored the eudaimonic aspects of transatlantic Romanticism in two previous booksandhadalsojustcompletededitingananthologyofecstaticpoet- ry. Given these interests, this volume seemed like a valuable way to exploremoredeeplytheimportanceofwell-beinginliterarystudiesand tobringtogethertheworkofotherscholarswithsimilarperspectives. As we have labored to prepare this volume for publication over the pasttwoyears,wehavebeenaidedtremendouslybyanumberofpeople. WewouldliketothankMartySeligman,MihalyCsikszentmihalyi,Chris Peterson, Bob Vallerand, Martha Nussbaum, Susan Wolfson, Darrin McMahon, Jerry Singerman, Ryan Niemiec, and the many others who have offered us such helpful advice and strong encouragement. Thanks toeachoftheauthorsfortheirinsightfulcontributions,andespeciallyto Adam Potkay for writing the Foreword. In addition, we would like to thank our respective universities for much-needed support for our en- deavors:theUniversityofPennsylvania(andespeciallyNoraLewisand Dave Bieber, as well as the Positive Psychology Center); and Kean Uni- versity (and especially James Cowen and the Ocean County College Li- brary).Wewouldalsoliketothankourstudents,particularlythoseinthe Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the Univer- sityofPennsylvania,includingBehdadBozorgniaandtheparticipantsin Pawelski’scourseontheHumanitiesandHumanFlourishing,aswellas students at Kean University who took Moores’s courses on ecstatic and eudaimonic poetry. We are grateful to David Dunning, an outstanding student research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania whose in- ix
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