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- Format: Paperback Learn more about the Paperback format using Tower WIKI.
- Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr
- ISBN: 0521585643
- WAPI (Tower ID): 100902062
- Release Date: April 1, 1997
- Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
- Tower.com Sales Rank: #678396 in Books (See Top 100 Books Bestsellers)
- #7760 in Literary Criticism (See Top 100 Literary Criticism Bestsellers)
- #68 in Gay & Lesbian (See Top 100 Gay & Lesbian Bestsellers)
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Product DescriptionRun a Quick Search on "Myths of Modern Individualism" by Ian P. Watt to Browse Related Products:Browse more products related to "Myths of Modern Individualism"Browse more products related to "Ian P. Watt"Review"Watt has dug deep and come up with indispensable revelations about where we come from and where we are now as we 'individuals' grapple with our inescapable complaints about, yet need for, 'society.'" "Like all of Watt's work this is a remarkable work of historical imagination, sympathetic without being fussy, erudite but always deft, analytic but very warm and witty. This is a book everyone should read." "He [Watt] practices a 'synthetic' method: that is, he does not choose between the history of ideas, sociological analysis, and formal or stylistic understanding. He masters them all. To this he brings a firm and limpid style, often tinged with irony, never contaminated by jargon. Watt addresses the common reader, not the specialist churches." Publisher's noteIn their original versions, the ultimate fates of Faust, Don Quixote, and Don Juan reflect the anti-individualism of their time: Faust and Don Juan are punished in hellfire, and Don Quixote is mocked. The three represent the positive drive of individualism, which brings down on itself repression by social disapproval. A century later, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe embodies a more favorable consideration of the individual, but only if one refuses to take seriously Defoe's statement that Crusoe's isolation is punishment for disobeying his father. In this volume, Ian Watt examines these four myths of the modern world, all created in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, as distinctive products of a historically new society. He shows how the original versions of Faust (1587), Don Quixote (1605), and Don Juan (ca. 1620) presented unflattering portrayals of the three, whereas the Romantic period two centuries later re-created them as admirable and even heroic. Robinson Crusoe (1719) is seen as representative of the new religious, economic, and social attitudes. The four figures reveal the problems of individualism in the modern period: solitude, narcissism, and the claims of the self versus the claims of society. None of them marries or has lasting relations with women; rather, each has as his closest friend a male servant. Mephistopheles, Sancho Panza, Catalinon, and Friday are devoted till the end and happy in their subordinate role - the perfect personal servant. This suggests the self-centeredness of the four figures. Each pursues his own view of what he should be, raising strong questions about his character as a hero and also about the society whose ideals he reflects. In Myths of Modern Individualism, the renowned critic Ian Watt treats Don Juan, Don Quixote, Faust, and Robinson Crusoe as individualists, pursuing their own views of what they should be. The original Counter Reformation myths saw the individualism of Don Juan, Don Quixote, and Faust as a problem to be quelled by death or mockery. However, the Romantic period, a time more favorably disposed toward myth, saw their dissension not as unacceptable disorder, but rather as admirable and heroic behavior. This incisive study traces attitudes toward these figures and the Romantic product Robinson Crusoe from disapproval to awe to skepticism, examining them as icons of such problems as solitude, narcissism, and the claims of the self versus the claims of the community. Pointedly, none of these figures marries or has a lasting relationship, save for the selfless devotion of a single male servant. Watt argues that the myths of Don Juan, Don Quixote, Faust, and Robinson Crusoe remain the distinctive products of Western society, embodying the most basic values of modern culture. If You Enjoy "Myths of Modern Individualism (Paperback)", May We Also Recommend:Customer Reviews for "Myths of Modern Individualism (Paperback)" by Ian P. Watt (Author)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Gay & Lesbian Bestsellers
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