On Not Being Someone Else

Tales of Our Unled Lives
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-0-674-23808-4
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 390 g

A captivating book about the emotional and literary power of the lives we might have lived had our chances or choices been different. We each live one life, formed by paths taken and untaken. Choosing a job, getting married, deciding on a place to live or whether to have children—every decision precludes another. But what if you’d gone the other way? It can be a seductive thought, even a haunting one. Andrew H. Miller illuminates this theme of modern culture: the allure of the alternate self. From Robert Frost to Sharon Olds, Virginia Woolf to Ian McEwan, Jane Hirshfield to Carl Dennis, storytellers of every stripe write of the lives we didn’t have. What forces encourage us to think this way about ourselves, and to identify with fictional and poetic voices speaking from the shadows of what might have been? Not only poets and novelists, but psychologists and philosophers have much to say on this question. Miller finds wisdom in all these sources, revealing the beauty, the power, and the struggle of our unled lives. In an elegant and provocative rumination, he lingers with other selves, listening to what they say. Peering down the path not taken can be frightening, but it has its rewards. On Not Being Someone Else offers the balm that when we confront our imaginary selves, we discover who we are.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miller, Andrew H

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Sachbuch
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie

Über Autor(innen)

Miller, Andrew H
Andrew H. Miller is the author of <i>The Burdens of Perfection</i> and <i>Novels behind Glass.</i> A Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University, he has received fellowships from the National Humanities Center and the American Council of Learned Societies.