Synopses & Reviews
Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History is a unique approach to the inner life and its ordinary pains. It charts the emergence of our contemporary conception of worry, which originated with the Victorians and became established after the First World War as a feature of modernity. Worry was, for some writers between the Wars, the 'disease of the age.'
Worrying considers worry-a fearful, non-pathological, and usually hidden questioning about uncertain futures-which is every day. It offers a 'short' history of worry as it came into language in the early twentieth century and a 'long' history. This is an account of worry as a natural companion in a world where we try to live by reason and believe we have the right to choose. It finds in the worrier a peculiarly contemporary sufferer, whose mental life is not only exceptionally familiar but deeply strange. This book suggests that when we take worry into account, we realize just how little we know of others.
Offering an intimately personal account of an all too common human experience, and of a word that slips in and out of ordinary conversation so that it has become invisible in its familiarity, Worrying is a book about the sadness of everyday and how the modern world has shaped it.
Synopsis
Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History suggests a unique approach to the inner life and its ordinary pains. Francis O'Gorman charts the emergence of our contemporary idea of worry in the Victorian era and its establishment, after the First World War, as a feature of modernity. For some writers between the Wars, worry was the disease of the age.
Worrying examines the everyday kind of worry-the fearful, non-pathological, and usually hidden questioning about uncertain futures. It shows worry to be a natural companion in a world where we try to live by reason and believe we have the right to choose, finding in the worrier a peculiarly contemporary sufferer whose mental life is not only exceptionally familiar, but also deeply strange.
Offering an intimately personal account of an all-too-common human experience, and of a word that slips in and out of ordinary conversation so often that it has become invisible in its familiarity, Worrying explores how the modern world has shaped our everyday anxieties.
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About the Author
Francis O'Gorman is Professor of Victorian Literature and Head of the School of English at the University of Leeds, UK. His publications include Blackwell's Critical Guide to the Victorian Novel (2002), Victorian Poetry: An Annotated Anthology (2004) and The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Culture (2010). He is also the editor of the Oxford World Classics editions of John Ruskin's Praeterita (2012) and, with Katherine Mullin, of Anthony Trollope's The Duke's Children (2011). He is a regular contributor to The Guardian and TLS.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Preface
Chapter 1: What is Worry?
Chapter 2: Worry and Belief
Chapter 3: Worry and Reason
Chapter 4: Reasoning about Worry
Coda
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index