Melancholy Experience in Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century: Before Depression, 1660-1800

by A. Ingram, S. Sim, C. Lawlor, R. Terry, J. Baker

Overview

Arising from a research project on depression in the eighteenth century, this book discusses the experience of depressive states both in terms of existing modes of thought and expression, and of attempts to describe and live with suffering. It also asks what present-day society can learn about depression from the eighteenth-century experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349319497
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Edition description:	1st ed. 2011
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

ALLAN INGRAM is Professor of English at the University of Northumbria, UK. He has published widely in the field of eighteenth-century studies and particularly on literature and madness. He was Director of the Leverhulme Trust 'Before Depression' project. He is co-general editor and volume co-editor for the forthcoming Depression and Melancholy 1660-1800 set (Pickering & Chatto, 2012).

STUART SIM is Visiting Professor of Critical Theory and Long Eighteenth-Century English Literature in the Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Northumbria, UK. He has published widely in his two main subject areas. A co-editor and founder-member of the journal Bunyan Studies (1988- ), he was elected a Fellow of the English Association in 2002.

CLARK LAWLOR is Reader in English Literature at the University of Northumbria, UK, and has published many works on literature and medicine – including Consumption and Literature: The Making of the Romantic Disease (Palgrave, 2006), which was shortlisted for the European Society for the Study of English book prize 2006-8. At present he is writing Depression: The Biography (Oxford University Press, 2011).

RICHARD TERRY is Professor of Eighteenth-Century English Literature at University of Northumbria, UK, having worked for many years at the University of Sunderland. He has published extensively on eighteenth-century poetry and on mock-heroic as a literary device and form.

JOHN BAKER is Maître de conférences (Senior Lecturer) in English at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France. He has published in French and English on themes associated with the writings of Edward Young and the Night Thoughts, and more generally on poetry of the eighteenth century.

LEIGH WETHERALL-DICKSON is Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century English Literature at University of Northumbria, UK and began her career there as a post-doctoral Research Associate on the Leverhulme-funded 'Before Depression 1660-1800' project. She is currently involved as co-general editor and volume editor for the forthcoming Depression and Melancholy 1660-1800 set (Pickering & Chatto, 2012).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Author Biographies Introduction: Depression Before Depression; A.Ingram  & S.Sim Fashionable Melancholy; C.Lawlor Philosophical Melancholy; R.Terry 'Strange contrarys': Figures of Melancholy in Eighteenth-Century Poetry; J.Baker Despair, Melancholy and the Novel; S.Sim Melancholy, Medicine, Mad Moon and Marriage: Autobiographical Expressions of Depression; L.Wetherall-Dickson Deciphering Difference: A Study in Medical Literacy; A.Ingram Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'The studies that make up Melancholy Experience show how integral and dynamic medical and literary writing can be when read together. Judiciously chosen texts from a range of genres, by major figures and anonymous authors, demonstrate the wealth of perspectives offered by the history of melancholy on such topics as sex, religion, and creativity, as well as the condition itself. The book maintains a sense of conviction that the records left by sufferers and those who cared for them in the long eighteenth century are valuable for those who suffer now and those who wish to help. It is a fine example of such cross-era juxtaposition done conscientiously and constructively. Perhaps the strongest and most unique feature of this work is the humaneness of its scholarship, which causes the reader to share the deep interest and compassion the authors evidently feel for their subjects.'

- Tristanne Connolly, Assistant Professorof English, St. Jerome's University, University of Waterloo, Canada

'Offering excellent insight into what the eighteenth century can teach us in terms of treatment of depressive states, it will be of great value not only to eighteenth-century scholars and students, but to all persons with an interest in the workings of the human mind and its disorders.' Miranda Journal

'...this is a valuable and highly varied volume...' - Review of English Studies

From the Publisher