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Author : Oliver Bennett
Release : 2001
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 369/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Cultural Pessimism by : Oliver Bennett
Download or read book Cultural Pessimism written by Oliver Bennett. This book was released on 2001. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative and wide-ranging analysis of the cultural mood of anxiety and pessimism in the early 21st century.
Author : Bennett Oliver Bennett
Release : 2019-06-01
Genre : LITERARY CRITICISM
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 343/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Cultural Pessimism by : Bennett Oliver Bennett
Download or read book Cultural Pessimism written by Bennett Oliver Bennett. This book was released on 2019-06-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultural pessimism arises with the conviction that the culture of a nation, a civilisation or of humanity itself is in a process of irreversible decline. In an incisive and wide-ranging analysis, Cultural Pessimism: Narratives of Decline in the Postmodern World charts the growth of pessimism in the West during the last decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on studies from within a very broad range of fields, which include ecology, human rights, military history, international relations, criminology, history of science, cultural criticism and political economy, the author shows how cultural pessimism in the postmodern world can be related to the cumulative effect of four key narratives of decline:*Environmental decline*Moral decline*Intellectual decline*Political declineAfter a review of pessimism in other historical periods, each of these narratives is explored in depth. The book attempts to answer a number of questions: how are the narratives constituted and what are the conditions to which they refer? To what extent are those conditions historically unprecedented? To which cultures do the narratives relate? What values do they reflect? To what extent are the identified processes of decline seen as irreversible? Concluding that cultural pessimism is as much a matter of psychological and biological disposition as of intellectual judgement, Oliver Bennett's challenging book offers valuable new insights into how we view the prospects of the twenty-first century.Features:*Provides an authoritative account of how the postmodern world has been represented as one of decline. *Brings together different perspectives kept apart by professional and academic specialisation*Views culture in its broadest sense as 'a whole way of life'*Provides an historical overview of cultural pessimism, tracing its various manifestations from the modern period back to its existence in early religions*Examines the biological, psychological and sociolog
Author : John Stroup
Release : 2007
Genre : Occupational prestige
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 52X/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Escape Into the Future by : John Stroup
Download or read book Escape Into the Future written by John Stroup. This book was released on 2007. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Escape into the Future analyzes the power of pessimism, showing links between present-day religious pessimism and the nihilism of popular culture. Stroup and Shuck rummage through an interesting and eclectic body of pop culture--from Fight Club to X-Files to the Left Behind series--pointing out the presence of pessimistic themes throughout. This volume identifies and illuminates the religious language used in these works to articulate America's need to escape from its present cultural path and, ultimately, provide hope that it might do so.
Author : John Stroup
Release : 2007
Genre : Business & Economics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 879/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Escape Into the Future by : John Stroup
Download or read book Escape Into the Future written by John Stroup. This book was released on 2007. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Escape into the Future analyzes the power of pessimism, showing links between present-day religious pessimism and the nihilism of popular culture. Stroup and Shuck rummage through an interesting and eclectic body of pop culture--from Fight Club to X-Files to the Left Behind series--pointing out the presence of pessimistic themes throughout. This volume identifies and illuminates the religious language used in these works to articulate America's need to escape from its present cultural path and, ultimately, provide hope that it might do so.
Author : Joshua Foa Dienstag
Release : 2009-02-17
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 485/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Pessimism by : Joshua Foa Dienstag
Download or read book Pessimism written by Joshua Foa Dienstag. This book was released on 2009-02-17. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pessimism claims an impressive following--from Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to Freud, Camus, and Foucault. Yet "pessimist" remains a term of abuse--an accusation of a bad attitude--or the diagnosis of an unhappy psychological state. Pessimism is thought of as an exclusively negative stance that inevitably leads to resignation or despair. Even when pessimism looks like utter truth, we are told that it makes the worst of a bad situation. Bad for the individual, worse for the species--who would actually counsel pessimism? Joshua Foa Dienstag does. In Pessimism, he challenges the received wisdom about pessimism, arguing that there is an unrecognized yet coherent and vibrant pessimistic philosophical tradition. More than that, he argues that pessimistic thought may provide a critically needed alternative to the increasingly untenable progressivist ideas that have dominated thinking about politics throughout the modern period. Laying out powerful grounds for pessimism's claim that progress is not an enduring feature of human history, Dienstag argues that political theory must begin from this predicament. He persuasively shows that pessimism has been--and can again be--an energizing and even liberating philosophy, an ethic of radical possibility and not just a criticism of faith. The goal--of both the pessimistic spirit and of this fascinating account of pessimism--is not to depress us, but to edify us about our condition and to fortify us for life in a disordered and disenchanted universe.
