
The Literature of Pity
David Punter(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 17. March 2014
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-7486-3949-6 (ISBN)
Description
Pity represents a combination of fear, helplessness and overwhelming agitation. It is a term which suffuses our everyday lives; it is also a dangerous term hovering between approval of sympathy and disapproval of emotional wallowing (as in 'self-pity'). This book traces an entire history of pity, as an emotion and as an element in the arts, engaging as it does so with a wealth of theoretical ideas including Freud, Derrida, Levinas and others. It begins with an 'Introduction: Distinguishing Pity', followed by chapters on the Aristotelian framework; Buddhism and pity; the pieta in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Shakespeare on pity; Milton's pitiless Christianity; pity and charity in the early novel; Blake's views on pity; the Victorian debate, from Austen to Dickens and George Eliot; Brecht and Chekhov on pity and self-pity; 'war, and the pity of war'; Jean Rhys and Stevie Smith; pity, immigration and the colony; and finally three contemporary texts by Michel Faber, Kazuo Ishiguro and Cormac McCarthy.Features* Original treatment of the concept of pity providing detailed textual criticism and speculative argument* Wide-ranging: running from ancient Greek theory to the present day* Covers a wide variety of texts, including fiction, poetry and drama* Engages with the most recent theoretical debates about literature and the emotions
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
4 colour illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
451 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-3949-6 (9780748639496)
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
Other editions
Additional editions

David Punter
The Literature of Pity
E-Book
09/2018
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€92.49
Available for download

David Punter
The Literature of Pity
E-Book
03/2014
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
David Punter, having worked at universities in England, Scotland, Hong Kong and China, is now Professor of English at the University of Bristol. He has published over twenty monographs and edited collections in the Gothic, romantic writing, modern and contemporary writing, and literary theory. His most recent publications include Writing the Passions (2000); Postcolonial Imaginings: Fictions of a New World Order (2000); Metaphor (2007); Modernity (2007); Rapture: Literature, Addiction, Secrecy (2009); and A New Companion to the Gothic (ed., 2012). He has also published five volumes of poetry.
Content
Preface; Chapter One: Distinguishing pity; Chapter Two: Pity and terror: the Aristotelian framework; Chapter Three: Pieta; Chapter Four: Shakespeare on pity; Chapter Five: The eighteenth century; Chapter Six: Blake: 'Pity would be no more ...'; Chapter Seven: Aspects of Victoriana; Chapter Eight: Chekhov and Brecht: pity and self-pity; Chapter Nine: 'War, and the pity of war': Wilfred Owen, David Jones, Primo Levi; Chapter Ten: Reflections on Algernon Blackwood's Gothic; Chapter Eleven: Pity's cold extremities: Jean Rhys and Stevie Smith; Chapter Twelve: Reclaiming the savage night; Chapter Thirteen: 'Pity the poor immigrant': pity, diaspora, the colony; Chapter Fourteen: Lyric and pity; After thought: under the dome; Bibliography.