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E-book The Language of Melancholy : A Historical-Philosophical Exploration of Its Potential

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Penilaian

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When Townes van Zandt was once asked why most of his songs are so sad, he replied with the telling phrase: ‘Blues is happy music!’ His blues is ‘happy,’ of course, not because it is jolly and there is no sadness in it, but much rather precisely because it affirms and gives form to sadness, thereby enabling us to transform and transcend it. Townes’ point was that any genuine path towards happiness for a human being leads through an engagement with – rather than a denial of – the sadness inherent to life. This is also one of the central premises of the present book: it is only through a recognition of the darker and more difficult aspects of life that we can truly engage with life itself and enjoy its light. In order to achieve such a recognition, however, one needs words, images, concepts and metaphors, in short – one needs a language. Especially when the subject matter is dark and resistant to elucidation of itself, an expressive language is all the more important. This book is about such a language to think and speak about the darker aspects of human experience, a language that lay at the heart of the European imagination for centuries, as it was transmitted through a living tradition involving philosophers, physicians, poets, theologians, novelists and artists, until it recently became obscured: the language of melancholy.The guiding idea of this book is that we have lost something important with the historical demise of that language since the rise of psychiatry in the 19th century, and that this loss of language lies at the root of contemporary difficulties in dealing with those darker aspects of our experience. The aim of this book is to bring out the power of the language of melancholy and portray its philosophical and existential potential, by drawing the figures and images of its tradition out of the shadows and letting them speak. The traditional discourse of melancholy had a unique way of engaging with those darker aspects of human experience, and of embedding them within a wider understanding of human nature, in a philosophical anthropology, if you like. As I argue throughout this book, the notion of melancholy was the centre of gravity of an interdisciplinary language and discourse that gave people a way to give meaning to those experiences, in all their varying degrees of intensity and duration. The depth and magnitude of this discourse is fascinating in itself.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

902 VIN t

Penerbit

London : Taylor & Francis., 2025

Deskripsi Fisik

263 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781040448977

Klasifikasi

902

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Miscellany of History

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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