Philosophical Siblings: Varieties of Playful Experience in Alice, William, and Henry James
()
About this ebook
Alice James: an exemplary nineteenth-century neurasthenic and diarist. William James: a foundational figure for American psychology and philosophy. Henry James: a preeminent author and literary critic. These three iconic figures of nineteenth-century American culture and letters were also siblings, children of the storied James family, yet the diarist, the psychologist, and the novelist have seemed to occupy distinct realms of cultural authority and to speak to different audiences (or, in the case of Alice, to no audience at all). Their writings have rarely been considered together.
In Philosophical Siblings Jane F. Thrailkill asks what new story is illuminated when we study their writings collectively. By approaching the Jameses as intimate thinkers operating on a common field of play, Thrailkill reveals the siblings' shared project—part psychological, part philosophical—of showing how minds meet in a world teeming with possibilities and risks. Scientists in nineteenth-century psychology labs were studying isolated individuals, tracking eye movements, and timing reactions to better understand the human machine. In contrast, the Jameses' models for discovery were philosophical toys: ludic devices that light up quirks of perception and are devilishly fun as well. With childlike humor, the siblings' intellectual playfulness is both message and medium, manifested in an expressive style that exploits incongruity, delights in absurdities, and sometimes, teasingly, inflicts the sting of critique.
Most important, the Jameses' writings model how human beings accomplish high-wire acts of perception and creation. Alice, William, and Henry James did not merely present a new, interactive theory of mind; they dramatized it in their writings as a curiosity-based practice. Philosophical Siblings accepts their invitation to mindful play and offers a fresh way of thinking about literary encounters more generally, one that approaches even the weightiest texts with serious lightness.
Related to Philosophical Siblings
Related ebooks
Man's Estate: Masculine Identity in Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnsettling Jewish Knowledge: Text, Contingency, Desire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seven Beauties of Science Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ambiguity of Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Stage of Fools: A Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Psychological Analysis of Henry James' the Portrait of a Lady Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Novels Think: The Limits of Individualism from 1719-1900 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoyce's Benefictions: Perspectives in Criticism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 1855 Murder Case of Missouri versus Celia, an Enslaved Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen, Compulsion, Modernity: The Moment of American Naturalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Color in Early Modern England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Wallflowers to Bulletproof Families: The Power of Disability in Young Adult Narratives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhantasmatic Shakespeare: Imagination in the Age of Early Modern Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealing Fictions: Assorted Essays on Literature & Art Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHumour, Comedy and Laughter: Obscenities, Paradoxes, Insights and the Renewal of Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimal Characters: Nonhuman Beings in Early Modern Literature Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Joyce in Nighttown: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry into Ulysses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry James and the Suspense of Masculinity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsL’Arrogance De La Jeunesse - the Swagger of Youth: a Collection of Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Science of Sacrifice: American Literature and Modern Social Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Image of Man in Selected Plays of August Wilson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reconsidering the Emergence of the Gay Novel in English and German Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dice Game of Shiva: How Consciousness Creates the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Could Talk Old-Story Good: Creativity in Bahamian Folklore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Metamorphoses of Apuleius: On Making an Ass of Oneself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Persistence of Memory: Organism, Myth, Text Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hung Jury: The Winds of Freedom Blow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Cultural History of Causality: Science, Murder Novels, and Systems of Thought Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Circe: by Madeline Miller | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse: by William Cooper | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verity: by Colleen Hoover | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Habit: by Charles Duhigg | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/512 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5SUMMARY Of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Alone: by Kristin Hannah | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.by Brené Brown | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Book of Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killers of the Flower Moon: by David Grann | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related categories
Reviews for Philosophical Siblings
0 ratings0 reviews