On Leaving: A Reading in Emerson

On Leaving: A Reading in Emerson

In his essay â€œCompensation,â€ Emerson makes a surprising claim: â€œEvery soul is by this intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws, and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house.â€ Branka ArsiÄ‡ unpacks Emersonâ€™s repeated assertion that our reality and our minds are in constant flux. ArsiÄ‡â€™s readings of a broad range of Emersonâ€™s writingsâ€•the Early Lectures, Journals and Notebooks, and later lecturesâ€•are guided by a central question: what does it really mean to maintain that everything fluctuates, is relational, and so changes its identity? Reading Emerson through this lens, ArsiÄ‡ asks: How is the leaving of oneâ€™s own consciousness actually to be performed? What kind of relationship is predicated on the necessity of leaving? What does it mean for our system of values, our ethics and our political allegiances, and even our personal identities to be on the move? The bold new understanding of Emerson that results redefines inherited concepts of the Emersonian individual as all-composed, willful, appropriative, and self-reliant. In its place, ArsiÄ‡ reveals an Emersonian individual whose ideal being is founded in mutability.

Country	USA
Author	Branka Arsić
Binding	Hardcover
Brand	Brand: Harvard University Press
EAN	9780674050730
Feature	Used Book in Good Condition
ISBN	0674050738
IsEligibleForTradeIn	1
Label	Harvard University Press
Manufacturer	Harvard University Press
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	404
PublicationDate	2010-04-15
Publisher	Harvard University Press
ReleaseDate	2010-02-16
Studio	Harvard University Press

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