Author: Cornelia D. J. Pearsall File Type: pdf In the wake of the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, the subject of In Memoriam, Alfred Tennyson wrote a range of intricately connected poems, many of which feature pivotal scenes of rapture, or being carried away. This book explores Tennysons representation of rapture as a radical mechanism of transformation-theological, social, political, or personal-and as a figure for critical processes in his own poetics. The poets fascination with transformation is figured formally in the genre he is credited with inventing, the dramatic monologue. Tennysons Rapture investigates the poets previously unrecognized intimacy with the theological movements in early Victorian Britain that are the acknowledged roots of contemporary Pentacostalism, with its belief in the oncoming Rapture, and its formative relation to his poetic innovation. Tennysons work recurs persistently as well to classical instances of rapture, of mortals being borne away by immortals. Pearsall develops original readings of Tennysons major classical poems through concentrated attention to his profound intellectual investments in advances in philological scholarship and archeological exploration, including pressing Victorian debates over whether Homers raptured Troy was a verifiable site, or the province of the poets imagination. Tennysons attraction to processes of personal and social change is bound to his significant but generally overlooked Whig ideological commitments, which are illuminated by Hallams political and philosophical writings, and a half-century of interaction with William Gladstone. Pearsall shows the comprehensive engagement of seemingly apolitical monologues with the rise of democracy over the course of Tennysons long career. Offering a new approach to reading all Victorian dramatic monologues, this book argues against a critical tradition that sees speakers as unintentionally self-revealing and ignorant of the implications of their speech. Tennysons Rapture probes the complex aims of these discursive performances, and shows how the ambitions of speakers for vital transformations in themselves and their circumstances are not only articulated in, but attained through, the medium of their monologues.ReviewThis is undoubtedly one of the most impressive books on Alfred Tennyson to have appeared in many years. Tennysons Rapture remains an extremely important contribution to the study of the dramatic monologue. The book is even more significant for the field of Tennyson studies, since it shows how even some of Tennysons most personal works are embedded in a broad cultural and historical matrix. Pearsalls readings stand as a worthy complement to those of Herbert Tucker, and this is no small praise. This is a major work- erudite, comprehensive and cogent- that significantly enhances our understanding both of Tennyson and of Victorian poetry in general.-Victorian StudiesIn Tennysons Rapture Cornelia Pearsall joins the ranks of those gifted scholars who have opened our eyes to the intellectual demands and aesthetic grandeur of on of Englands greatest poets. Throughout this magnificent study, Pearsall makes the strongest claims to date for the rhetorical efficacy of the Victorian laureates influential dramatic monologues. Highly attentive to form, her imposing analyses reveal how Tennysons major early works emerged from some of most urgent political, scientific, and theological debates of his time.--Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los AngelesPearsalls textured, responsive and resourceful readings stand comparison with the best in the field. This is deeply informed and fully pondered critical scholarship and its publication will reconfigure the field of debate about some of Tennysons most-studied poems--and thereby about Victorian poetrys most-theorized genre, the dramatic monologue, which Pearsall restores to its roots in civic eloquence.--Herbert F. Tucker, University of VirginiaAbout the AuthorCornelia Pearsall is Associate Professor of English at Smith College. The author of articles on Auden, Browning, and others, she is completing a book on the formative associations between poetry and late Victorian imperial expansion. She is also working on a collection of essays on British war poetry, and a book on the culture of Victorian mourning.

Author: Jan-Willem van Prooijen File Type: pdf Who believes in conspiracy theories, and why are some people more susceptible to them than others? What are the consequences of such beliefs? Has a conspiracy theory ever turned out to be true? The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories debunks the myth that conspiracy theories are a modern phenomenon, exploring their broad social contexts, from politics to the workplace. The book explains why some people are more susceptible to these beliefs than others and how they are produced by recognizable and predictable psychological processes. Featuring examples such as the 911 terrorist attacks and climate change, The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories shows us that while such beliefs are not always irrational and are not a pathological trait, they can be harmful to individuals and society. **

Author: Randal Keynes File Type: mobi **Soon to be a major motion picture The moving, personal story of Charles Darwin and his revolutionary views on nature, evolution, and the human condition. ** As Darwins theories continue to shape much of our thinking about the roots of human nature, *Creation* (formerly *Darwin, His Daughters, and Human Evolution*) reveals the personal experiences from which he drew his most deeply held ideas. In a chest of drawers bequeathed by his grandmother, author Randal Keynes, a great-great-grandson of Darwin, found the writing case of Charles Darwins beloved daughter Annie, who died at the age of fifteen. Offering rare insight into the familys private world, Keynes gives us a fuller picture of one of our most original thinkers, as well as a wealth of previously unseen material.

Author: Scott L. Marratto File Type: epub An original interpretation of Merleau-Ponty on subjectivity, drawing from and challenging both the continental and analytic traditions. Challenging a prevalent Western idea of the self as a discrete, interior consciousness, Scott L. Marratto argues instead that subjectivity is a characteristic of the living, expressive movement establishing a dynamic intertwining between a sentient body and its environment. He draws on the work of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, contemporary European philosophy, and research in cognitive science and development to offer a compelling investigation into what it means to be a self. [an] excellent book The Intercorporeal Self is a technically sophisticated and enriching work that engages with many interpretive strands and approaches in Merleau-Ponty scholarship, clarifying what is distinct and powerful about Merleau-Pontys philosophy of subjectivity [it] is a substantial contribution to Merleau-Ponty scholarship, and should inspire future research on Merleau-Pontys rich corpus, as well as into the nature of sensibility and subjectivity themselves. Symposium a bold and brave attempt to provide a unified interpretation of the central themes of Merleau-Pontys phenomenology, and as such it deserves to be welcomed and studied carefully by all those who value Merleau-Pontys writings. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews The Intercorporeal Self amounts to a kind of dialectic between Merleau-Pontys thought and naturalism as it functions within contemporary analytic thought and deconstruction as it appears in Derridas thought. Marratto constructs argumentation that shows that Merleau-Pontys thought cannot be reduced to naturalism and that it does not fall prey to the deconstructive critique. Consequently, Marratto, better than anyone else, shows the contribution that Merleau-Ponty makes to contemporary philosophy. This is an important book. I would even venture to say that it is a genuine work of philosophy. Leonard Lawlor, Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University Marratto brings Merleau-Pontys phenomenology into a mutually transformative dialogue with the latest trends in the embodied sciences of the mind. His book puts side by side notions of intercorporeality, habit, style, and auto-affection with Gestalt, ecological, sensorimotor, and enactive perspectives on perception and subjectivity. Marratto weaves together the threads of conceptual traditions that saw themselves as incompatible not so long ago. A significant contribution to current efforts toward reconceptualizing the lived body as the matrix of significance and expressive being-in-the-world, and subjectivity as self-affecting, self-initiated movement and intercorporeal attunement to the demands of other bodies. Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, coeditor of Enaction Toward a New Paradigm for Cognitive Science Scott L. Marratto is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Michigan Technological University and the coauthor (with Lawrence E. Schmidt) of The End of Ethics in a Technological Society. **