The story of joy : from the Bible to late Romanticism /

The story of joy : from the Bible to late Romanticism /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Potkay, Adam, 1961-
Imprint:	Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Description:	xiii, 304 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Joy. Joy -- History. Joy in literature. Joy. Joy in literature. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6658627

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780521879118 0521879116 9780521178419 (pbk.) 052117841X (pbk.)
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-297) and index.
Summary:	"Joy is an experience of reunion or fulfillment, of desire at least temporarily laid to rest, of a good thing that comes to pass or seems sure to happen soon. In this book Adam Potkay explores the concept of joy, distinguishing it from related concepts such as happiness and ecstasy. He goes on to trace the literary and intellectual history of joy in the Western tradition, from Aristotle, the Bible and Provencal troubadours through contemporary culture, centering on British and German works from the Reformation through Romanticism. Describing the complex interconnections between literary art, ethics, and religion, Potkay offers fresh readings of Spenser, Shakespeare, Fielding, Schiller, English Romantic poets, Wilde and Yeats. The Story of Joy will be of special interest to scholars of the Renaissance to the late Romantic period, but will also appeal to readers interested in the changing perceptions of joy over time."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents:

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What is joy?
1. Religious joy: The ethics of oneness from the Bible to Aquinas
2. Erotic joi: The troubadour tradition
3. The theology of joy and joylessness: Luther to Crusoe
4. Ethical joy in the age of enlightenment
5. The joys of doing and of being: Wordsworth and his Victorian legacy
6. Joy and aesthetics: Coleridge to Wilde
7. Post-Christian prophesies of forgiveness and exaltation
8. Tragic joy and the spirit of music: Wagner, Nietzsche, Yeats
Conclusion: The career of joy in the twentieth century
Notes
Bibliography
Index