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The Story of Joy: From the Bible to Late Romanticism

The Story of Joy: From the Bible to Late Romanticism

by Adam Potkay (Author)

  • New

    Hardcover 2007

    $122.15
Synopsis

Joy is an experience of reunion or fulfilment, of desire at least temporarily laid to rest, of a good thing that comes to pass or seems sure to happen soon. In this wide-ranging and highly original 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, centring 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. Winner of the 2009 Harry Levin prize, 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.

$122.15

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 318
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 22 Nov 2007
ISBN 10: 0521879116
ISBN 13: 9780521879118
Book Overview: A highly original and hugely enjoyable literary and cultural history of joy from ancient times to the present.

Media Reviews
Review of the hardback: 'With The Story of Joy, Adam Potkay has written a deep and humane book, work of impressive learning and intellectual agility that is at once challenging, sophisticated and a pleasure to read.' The Review of English Studies
Review of the hardback: 'Beautifully written, with verve as well as precision, Adam Potkay's The Story of Joy examines the changing meanings and fortunes of the concept of joy in history, literature, and film. Offering a substantial and scholarly treatment of a neglected topic, this book is also quirky, interesting, and a real pleasure to read. Its arguments are clear and cogent, and it makes very helpful discriminations between related affective states. The author deserves to be congratulated for an important, genuinely illuminating contribution to the study of emotion as well as literary history.' Jonathan Culler, Professor of English, Cornell University
Review of the hardback: '... a well written, literature-oriented, history of ideas study quite accessible to the non-specialist.' Christianity and Literature
'The Story of Joy ... makes a crucial contribution to the study of the relationship of Romanticism and religion, and to the growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship devoted to challenging historical narratives of the inevitable march of secularism.' European Romantic Review
With The Story of Joy, Adam Potkay has written a deep and humane book, a work of impressive learning and intellectual agility that is at once challenging, sophisticated and a pleasure to read. -Darrin McMahon, Florida State University, Review of English Studies
Beautifully written, with verve as well as precision, Adam Potkay's The Story of Joy examines the changing meanings and fortunes of the concept of joy in history, literature, and film. Offering a substantial and scholarly treatment of a neglected topic, this book is also quirky, interesting, and a real pleasure to read. Its arguments are clear and cogent, and it makes very helpful discriminations between related affective states. The author deserves to be congratulated for an important, genuinely illuminating contribution to the study of emotion as well as literary history. -Jonathan Culler
...Potkay's best book yet. Its attention to the role of religion in the narrative of a neglected Western key-word comes as both a welcome surprise and an unusual development in the brash young discipline of cultural philology. May this mature scholar's fourth monograph soon appear. --Richard Brantley, University of Florida: The Wordsworth Circle
An excellent work that I highly recommend. The Scriblerian, Robert G. Walker
Author Bio
Adam Potkay is Professor of English at the College of William and Mary, Virginia.