A Biography of Loneliness
The History of an Emotion
Published on 14. January 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-19-881135-0 (ISBN)
Description
'A compassionate, wide-ranging study.'
Terry Eagleton, The Guardian
Despite 21st-century fears of a modern 'epidemic' of loneliness, its history has been sorely neglected.
A Biography of Loneliness is the first history of its kind to be published in English, offering a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience. Using letters and diaries, philosophical tracts, political discussions, and medical literature from the eighteenth century to the present, historian of the emotions Fay Bound Alberti argues that loneliness is not an ahistorical, universal phenomenon. It is, in fact, a modern emotion: before 1800, its language did not exist.
As Alberti shows, the birth of loneliness is linked to the development of modernity: the all-encompassing ideology of the individual that has emerged in the mind and physical sciences, in economic structures, in philosophy and politics. While it has a biography of its own, loneliness impacts on people differently, according to their gender, ethnicity, religion, outlook, and socio-economic position. It is, Alberti argues, not a single state but an 'emotion cluster', composed of a wide variety of responses that include fear, anger, resentment and sorrow. In spite of this, loneliness is not always negative. And it is physical as well as psychological: loneliness is a product of the body as much as the mind.
Looking at informative case studies such as Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf, A Biography of Loneliness charts the emergence of loneliness as a modern emotional state. From social media addiction to widowhood, from homelessness to the oldest old, from mall hauls to massages, loneliness appears in all aspects of 21st-century life. Yet we cannot address its meanings, let alone formulate a cure, without attention to its complex, protean history.
Terry Eagleton, The Guardian
Despite 21st-century fears of a modern 'epidemic' of loneliness, its history has been sorely neglected.
A Biography of Loneliness is the first history of its kind to be published in English, offering a radically new interpretation of loneliness as an emotional language and experience. Using letters and diaries, philosophical tracts, political discussions, and medical literature from the eighteenth century to the present, historian of the emotions Fay Bound Alberti argues that loneliness is not an ahistorical, universal phenomenon. It is, in fact, a modern emotion: before 1800, its language did not exist.
As Alberti shows, the birth of loneliness is linked to the development of modernity: the all-encompassing ideology of the individual that has emerged in the mind and physical sciences, in economic structures, in philosophy and politics. While it has a biography of its own, loneliness impacts on people differently, according to their gender, ethnicity, religion, outlook, and socio-economic position. It is, Alberti argues, not a single state but an 'emotion cluster', composed of a wide variety of responses that include fear, anger, resentment and sorrow. In spite of this, loneliness is not always negative. And it is physical as well as psychological: loneliness is a product of the body as much as the mind.
Looking at informative case studies such as Sylvia Plath, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf, A Biography of Loneliness charts the emergence of loneliness as a modern emotional state. From social media addiction to widowhood, from homelessness to the oldest old, from mall hauls to massages, loneliness appears in all aspects of 21st-century life. Yet we cannot address its meanings, let alone formulate a cure, without attention to its complex, protean history.
Reviews / Votes
In addition to Alberti's sharp political analysis, one of the most powerful themes in her book is how varied loneliness is, how embedded it is in our lives, how extensively it evades generalisation. Maybe loneliness is a 21st-century epidemic, a modern illness requiring an urgent response, but its also so much more than that. * Sophie McBain, The New Statesman * Alberti conveys the ambivalence of loneliness as we now conceive of it, its mingling of horror and desirability in a machine age. * Jane O'Grady, Literary Review * A wonderful biography of loneliness by a brilliant socio-cultural historian. * James Daybell, Histories of the Unexpected * Beginning with the intriguing argument that loneliness is a modern emotional phenomenon, Fay Bound Alberti traces many facets and factors leading up to the current loneliness dilemma. The book contributes both to several facets in the history of emotion over the past two centuries, and to a humane understanding of the issues and possibilities involved today. * Dr Peter Stearns, George Mason University * This fascinating book explores an increasingly central experience in our society-loneliness. Bound Alberti does a wonderful job of explaining where do all lonely people come from, and where do they all belong. The nuanced picture she draws has real potential to help us better understand, cope with, and reduce the most significant epidemic of our time. The author makes a particularly valuable distinction between fleeting and chronic loneliness. While fleeting loneliness can boost creativity and enhance emotional and spiritual clarity, chronic lonelinesswhich involves an existential sense of meaningless lackis devastatingly destructive. I highly recommend this important book for all readers. * Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, author of The Arc of Love * Why is loneliness such a major concern in western societies? In this thoughtful, thought-provoking book Fay Bound Alberti traces modern loneliness from its nineteenth-century cultural and demographic origins to its latest incarnation as a health emergency, a scourge of western society. Exploring diverse experiences of loneliness - from William Wordsworths famous lonely as a cloud to Sylvia Plaths desperate description of it as a disease of the blood - Bound Alberti provides a compelling account of the causes and consequences of loneliness in an age when community solidarities are at a premium. * Barbara Taylor, Professor of Humanities at Queen Mary University of London; principal investigator on Wellcome Trust funded project, 'Pathologies of Solitude, 18th-21st Century' * A compassionate, wide-ranging study. * Terry Eagleton, The Guardian *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Black and white images
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
325 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-881135-0 (9780198811350)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dr Fay Bound Alberti is a writer and cultural historian. She has taught at UK universities, including Manchester, Lancaster, Queen Mary, UCL and York, and researches the histories of gender, emotion, health, and medicine. Her books include Matters of the Heart: History, Medicine, and Emotion (2010), and This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culture (2016). Fay is a Foundation Future Leader Fellow at the Foundation for Science and Technology, a Reader in History and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of York, UK. Fay is currently writing a book on the history of face transplants.
Content
Acknowledgements
Preface: No (Wo)man is an island
Introduction: Loneliness as a 'modern epidemic'
1: When 'oneliness' became loneliness: the birth of a modern emotion
2: A 'disease of the blood'? The chronic loneliness of Sylvia Plath
3: Loneliness and lack: romantic love, from Wuthering Heights to Twilight
4: Widowhood and loss: from Thomas Turner to the Widow of Windsor
5: Instaglum? Social media and the making of online community
6: A 'ticking timebomb'? Rethinking loneliness in old age
7: Roofless and rootless: no place to call 'home'
8: Feeding the hunger. Materiality and the neglected lonely body
9: Lonely clouds and empty vessels. When loneliness is a gift
Conclusion: reframing loneliness in a neoliberal age
Further reading
Appendix
Preface: No (Wo)man is an island
Introduction: Loneliness as a 'modern epidemic'
1: When 'oneliness' became loneliness: the birth of a modern emotion
2: A 'disease of the blood'? The chronic loneliness of Sylvia Plath
3: Loneliness and lack: romantic love, from Wuthering Heights to Twilight
4: Widowhood and loss: from Thomas Turner to the Widow of Windsor
5: Instaglum? Social media and the making of online community
6: A 'ticking timebomb'? Rethinking loneliness in old age
7: Roofless and rootless: no place to call 'home'
8: Feeding the hunger. Materiality and the neglected lonely body
9: Lonely clouds and empty vessels. When loneliness is a gift
Conclusion: reframing loneliness in a neoliberal age
Further reading
Appendix