Lonesome: The Spiritual Meanings of American Solitude: v. 12 (Library of Modern Religion) - Hardcover

Lewis, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848850751 ISBN 13: 9781848850750

Verlag: I.B. Tauris, 2009

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"This is a deeply poetic and focused insight into American religion; not a history of its institutions or theology, but a highly original exploration of uniquely American sense of the religious through a prolonged meditation on one word. Through the work of Rudolf Otto, in particular, it links into the European tradition and its roots in mysticism, but in a manner wholly shaped by the experience and landscape of the New World. Kevin Lewis writes as a teacher, long familiar with the poetry, fiction and art of his country, and composes with a beautiful lyricism of his own that perfectly reflects the texts he reads so profoundly. Behind his under-stated narrative is a deep learning as well as a form of Romanticism that is embraced by his conversations with a literary tradition that is allowed to speak in its own voice and suggest to us a moving sense of the lonesome - not the lonely - which is a spiritual seeing into the other and into the self. His book ranges from the greatest of American poetry and art to popular music, opening up spaces for reflection and new insights to what is often familiar, but here again new and fresh. Lonesome is a major contribution to the field of literature and religion and should be widely read by scholars and by anyone seeking insight into what is particularly American." --David Jasper, Professor in Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow "With a sweeping scope that will work spectacularly in the classroom and find a welcome reception among scholars of religion and the arts, Kevin Lewis makes original and important observations about the literature, music, art and thought of leading figures in modern American history. His book will enrich the study of American culture by directing attention to an overlooked, but widely present motif. It brings to the diverse conversation of American Studies today the theme of lonesomeness, which will be found at work in modern America as a key feature of its troubled, self-obsessed, and varied religious and cultural life. White Americans have long cultivated an ethos of individualism that treasures solitude in a way that historically marginalized groups have not always enjoyed the opportunity to practice, forced by circumstances of oppression to rely more hopefully on the resource of communitarian values. Kevin Lewis offers readers a robust account of how important solitude has been as a form of modern spirituality." --David Morgan, Professor of Religion, Duke University "To be an American is to have buried, deep within our collective DNA, a profound sense of the lonesome. At least that is what USC religious studies professor Kevin Lewis has speculated during a long - and perhaps lonesome - intellectual trek through the landscape of American music, fiction, art and religion. In this scholarly work, [Lewis] explains how we are a people hard-wired to perceive and experience lonesomeness in a way that is far different from that of our counterparts on other continents. Rooted in our spiritual and religious life, lonesomeness is a vessel in which we pour parts of ourselves. He quotes Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, two of the greatest 19th-century American poets who worshiped at the altar of solitude. Whitman speaks of the 'joys of the free and lonesome heart, ' while Dickinson writes of the 'lonesome Glee' that 'sanctifies the mind.' In the artistic work of Edward Hopper, Lewis finds a transcendent lonesomeness in the artist's mix of light and shadow, in his realistic landscapes and in the solitary figures he places within his paintings. And, of course, there is country music to plumb with its focus on loss, love and redemption. While Lewis hopes this book will be a catalyst for an intellectual, American Studies-style conversation about lonesomeness, there is no question his research will resonate among the average Joe who finds himself, like the songwriter duo Larry Cordle and Jim Rushing, 'on lonesome standard time.' He is hopeful his reflections will jump-start a conversation on lonesomeness among academics and non-academics alike." --Carolyn Click, "The State""A compelling reading of an underappreciated part of the American mindset" -- "Literature and Theology"

Reseña del editor:

'There is another loneliness', wrote the American poet Emily Dickinson: 'Not want of friend occasions it, but nature sometimes, sometimes thought'. For Kevin Lewis, that 'other loneliness' is uniquely expressive of a rich and resonant state of being that is distinctive to the American psyche as well as central to the mythology of America itself. He calls this state of being 'lonesomeness'. It evokes the luminous landscapes of the West and the cathedral-like space of the Great Plains. It lies at the root of personal identity and is inseparable from notions of personal discovery and of communion with the varied topography of the United States, whether it be rural hinterland or industrial urban rustbelt.In this continuously stimulating reflection, Kevin Lewis explores - in religion, poetry, fiction, country songwriting and art - the multiple meanings of that peculiarly American notion of solitariness. Discussing quintessential American writers like Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac and Ernest Hemingway - creative artists who have all embraced positive conceptions of solitude and wilderness - Lewis finds the apex of American lonesomeness in the melancholic and reflective paintings of Edward Hopper. Lewis argues that in expressive works like "Nighthawks" and "Morning Sun" one sees Hopper's solitude redeemed by 'something more': by the notion that in isolation the individual may yet be touched by transcendence. Kevin Lewis argues that those echoes of 'something else' reveal a great deal about the American character that we would do well to heed, as well as deep rooted cultural attitudes towards religion, individualism and self-belief.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: I.B. Tauris
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1848850751
• ISBN 13: 9781848850750
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224