{"product_id":"cheerfulness-a-literary-and-cultural-history-by-timothy-hampton-9781942130604","title":"Cheerfulness – A Literary and Cultural History","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA timely story of a forgotten emotion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCheerfulness: A Literary and Cultural History\u003c\/em\u003e tells a new story about the cultural imagination of the West wherein cheerfulness—a momentary uptick in emotional energy, a temporary lightening of spirit—functions as a crucial theme in literary, philosophical, and artistic creations from early modern to contemporary times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn dazzling interpretations of Shakespeare and Montaigne, Hume, Austen and Emerson, Dickens, Nietzsche, and Louis Armstrong, Hampton explores the philosophical construal of cheerfulness—as a theme in Protestant theology, a focus of medical writing, a topic in Enlightenment psychology, and a category of modern aesthetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a conclusion on cheerfulness in pandemic days, Hampton stresses the importance of lightness of mind under the pressure of catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA history of the emotional life of European and American cultures, a breathtaking exploration of the intersections of culture, literature, and psychology, \u003cem\u003eCheerfulness\u003c\/em\u003e challenges the dominant narrative of Western aesthetics as a story of melancholy, mourning, tragedy, and trauma. Hampton captures the many appearances of this fleeting and powerfully transformative emotion whose historical and literary trajectory has never before been systematically traced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47460532322540,"sku":"9781942130604","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781942130604-cheerfulness-a-literary-and-cultural-history.jpg?v=1774948586","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/cheerfulness-a-literary-and-cultural-history-by-timothy-hampton-9781942130604","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}