{"product_id":"maladies-of-the-will-jennifer-l-fleissner-9780226822020","title":"Maladies of the Will: The American Novel and the Modernity Problem","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn examination of the nineteenth-century American novel that argues for a new genealogy of the concept of the will.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e What if the modern person were defined not by reason or sentiment, as Enlightenment thinkers hoped, but by will? Western modernity rests on the ideal of the autonomous subject, charting a path toward self-determination. Yet novelists have portrayed the will as prone to insufficiency or excess--from indecision to obsession, wild impulse to melancholic inertia. Jennifer Fleissner's ambitious book shows how the novel's attention to the will's maladies enables an ongoing interrogation of modern premises from within. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Maladies of the Will reveals the nineteenth-century American novel's relation to a wide-ranging philosophical tradition, highly relevant to our own tumultuous present. In works from \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Scarlet Letter\u003c\/i\u003e to Elizabeth Stoddard's \u003ci\u003eThe Morgesons\u003c\/i\u003e and Charles W. Chesnutt's \u003ci\u003eThe Marrow of Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e, the will's grandeur and its perversity emerge as it alternately aligns itself with and pits itself against a bigger Will--whether of God, the state, society, history, or life itself. Today, when invocations of autonomy appear beside the medicalization of many behaviors, and democracy's tenet of popular will has come into doubt, \u003ci\u003eMaladies of the Will\u003c\/i\u003e provides a map to how we got here, and how we might think these vital dilemmas anew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jennifer L. Fleissner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226822028\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226822020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/16\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.49lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.98w x 1.18d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2023","brand":"Jennifer L. Fleissner","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44076439437567,"sku":"9780226822020","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5882cc96-6026-45e3-acc2-d9a8235f672a.jpg?v=1685464999","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/maladies-of-the-will-jennifer-l-fleissner-9780226822020","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}