Thinking Against the Current: Literature and Political Resistance

ISBN-13: 9781845195946 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 224 str.

Sybil Oldfield

Opis

This collection of essays written between 1970 and 2010 covers political subjects as diverse as 17th-century Quaker persecution history, the social impact of Malthus, the self-emancipation of English women, Eleanor Rathbone on the human rights of girls, and German women s resistance to Hitler. The more literary subjects include the social thinking of the English Romantics, Dickens "Great Expectations," Simone Weil s essays attacking militarism, and Virginia Woolf s opposition to the State, as well as contemporary American women poets on the problem of war. But despite all its diversity, this compilation has one unifying theme: the necessity for "thinking against the current," as Virginia Woolf wrote in "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid." The torch of resistance to oppression and militarism is shown to have been continuously handed on through the generations from the 17th century to today by men and women who had the courage, at whatever personal cost, to "fight with the mind." This book of passionate, lively essays is not merely a treasure trove for biographical researchers, it also introduces unfamiliar forebears who can help in the current struggle for a better world."