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John D. Barbour - The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography - 9780813922898 - V9780813922898
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The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography

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Description for The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography paperback. Most people feel ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it depending on how they experience being alone at certain points in their lives. In "The Value of Solitude", John Barbour explores some of the ways in which experiences of solitude, both positive and negative, have been interpreted as religiously significant. Series: Studies in Religion and Culture. Num Pages: 240 pages. BIC Classification: DSB; HPQ; HRLK; JM. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 19. Weight in Grams: 386.
Most people feel ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it depending on how they experience being alone at certain points in their lives. In The Value of Solitude, John Barbour explores some of the ways in which experiences of solitude, both positive and negative, have been interpreted as religiously significant. He also shows how solitude can raise ethical questions as writers evaluate the virtues and dangers of aloneness and consider how social interaction and withdrawal can most meaningfully be combined in a life. Barbour's work differs from previous books about solitude in two ways: it links solitude with ethics and spirituality, and it approaches solitude by way of autobiography. Barbour ranges from the early Christian and medieval periods to the twentieth century in examining the varieties of solitary experience of writers such as Augustine, Petrarch, Montaigne, Gibbon, Rousseau, Thoreau, Thomas Merton, and Paul Auster. For many authors, the process of writing an autobiography is itself conceived of as a form of solitude, a detachment from others in order to discover or create a new sense of personal identity. Solitude helps these authors to reorient their lives according to their moral ideals and spiritual aspirations. The Value of Solitude both traces the persistence and vitality of the theme of solitude in autobiography and shows how the literary form and structure of autobiography are shaped by ethical and religious reflection on aloneness. This work should appeal to scholars in the fields of religious studies and theology, to literary critics and specialists in autobiography, and to readers interested in the experience of solitude and its moral and spiritual significance.

Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2004
Publisher
University of Virginia Press United States
Number of pages
240
Condition
New
Series
Studies in Religion and Culture
Number of Pages
240
Place of Publication
Charlottesville, United States
ISBN
9780813922898
SKU
V9780813922898
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-3

About John D. Barbour
John D. Barbour, Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College, is the author of Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith (Virginia).

Reviews for The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography
This is a powerful, comprehensive, and highly original book, impressive in terms of both its breadth of coverage and its depth of insight. It is a pleasure to read how vigorously the author speaks out for the moral and spiritual aspects of solitude in the age of a postmodern theory that allows little or no agency to a scattered and textually constituted subject. The Value of Solitude is a work of mature scholarship and probing critical reflection. - Eugene Stelzig, State University of New York at Geneseo, author of The Romantic Subject in Autobiography

Goodreads reviews for The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography


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