Cultures of Solitude
Loneliness – Limitation – Liberation
Edited By Ina Bergmann and Stefan Hippler
This collection of essays comprises cultural analyses of practices of eremitism and reclusiveness in the USA, which are inseparably linked to the American ideals of individualism and freedom. Covering a time frame from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, the essays study cultural products such as novels, poems, plays, songs, paintings, television shows, films, and social media, which represent the costs and benefits of deliberate withdrawal and involuntary isolation from society. Thus, this book offers valuable contributions to contemporary cultural discourses on privacy, surveillance, new technology, pathology, anti-consumerism, simplification, and environmentalism. Solitaries can be read as trailblazers for an alternative future or as symptoms of a pathological society.
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Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bergmann, Ina editor. | Hippler, Stefan, 1960- editor.
Title: Cultures of solitude : loneliness, limitation, liberation /
Ina Bergmann, Stefan Hippler (eds.).
Description: Frankfurt am Main ; New York : Peter Lang, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017000780 | ISBN 9783631679074
Subjects: LCSH: American literature—History and criticism. |
Solitude in literature—United States. | Solitude in popular culture—United States.
Classification: LCC PS169.S58 C85 2017 | DDC 810.9/353—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000780
Printed with the kind assistance of
Siblings Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation for the Humanities.
Cover Image: Alois Bergmann-Franken, Der alte Loy [Old Man Loy],
ca. 1925, oil on canvas, 50 cm x 35 cm, private collection, photo: Birgit Wörz.
Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck
ISBN 978-3-631-67907-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-07105-4 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-70815-6 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-70816-3 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07105-4
Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
© Ina Bergmann/Stefan Hippler, 2017
Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin
Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙
Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien
This publication has been peer reviewed.