| Creating Romantic Obsession: Scorpions in the Mind 2019 Edition Contributor(s): Béres Rogers, Kathleen (Author) |
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ISBN: 3030139875 ISBN-13: 9783030139872 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $94.99 Product Type: Hardcover Published: April 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Modern - 18th Century - Literary Criticism | Modern - 19th Century - Literary Criticism | Poetry |
| Dewey: 809.033 |
| Series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine |
| Physical Information: 0.56" H x 5.83" W x 8.27" (0.92 lbs) 206 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Most of us have, at one time, been obsessed with something, but how did obsession become a mental illness? This book examines literary, medical, and philosophical texts to argue that what we call obsession became a disease in the Romantic era and reflects the era's anxieties. Using a number of literary texts, some well-known (like Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 "The Tell Tale Heart") and some not (like Charlotte Dacre's 1811 The Passions and Charles Brockden Brown's 1787 Edgar Huntly), the book looks at "vigilia", an overly intense curiosity, "intellectual monomania", an obsession with study, "nymphomania" and "erotomania", gendered forms of desire, "revolutiana", an obsession with sublime violence and military service, and "ideality," an obsession with an idea. The coda argues that traces of these Romantic constructs can be seen in popular accounts of obsession today. |