Juvenescence - by Robert Pogue Harrison (Paperback)
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About this item
Highlights
- How old are you?
- About the Author: Robert Pogue Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Professor of Italian literature and chair of graduate studies in Italian at Stanford University.
- 231 Pages
- Social Science, Anthropology
Description
About the Book
How old are we, those of us who belong to the postwar era? By many measures, both evolutionary and cultural, we are older than ever. But we are also getting startlingly younger--younger in looks, attire, behavior, mentality, desires. We belong, Robert Harrison says, to an age of juvenescence. Juvenescence is about the ways in which the spirits of youth and age have coexisted and shaped each other, both in individuals and culture, from the time of antiquity to the present. It is also a book that asks what it means for the future when youth gains the upper hand to the unprecedented degree it has today. Our way of aging, Harrison argues, resembles thethe scientific concept of neoteny--the retention of immature characteristics into adulthood. We mature, but with a still tenacious youthfulness, driving drives toward innovation rather than reflection, genius rather than wisdom. At its best, human maturity has its source in the youth it brings to fruition. And yet our protracted youth, Harrison suggests, is a luxury that can be supported only by our elders and the institutions they build. Although Harrison believes, echoing Stephen Jay Gould, that "our genius as a species lies in our collective reluctance to grow up," he argues that we are today in a phase of radical juvenalization that allows no space for the kind of wisdom that builds upon the past.Book Synopsis
How old are you? The more thought you bring to bear on the question, the harder it is to answer. For we age simultaneously in different ways: biologically, psychologically, socially. And we age within the larger framework of a culture, in the midst of a history that predates us and will outlast us. Looked at through that lens, many aspects of late modernity would suggest that we are older than ever, but Robert Pogue Harrison argues that we are also getting startlingly younger-in looks, mentality, and behavior. We live, he says, in an age of juvenescence. Like all of Robert Pogue Harrison's books, Juvenescence ranges brilliantly across cultures and history, tracing the ways that the spirits of youth and age have inflected each other from antiquity to the present. Drawing on the scientific concept of neotony, or the retention of juvenile characteristics through adulthood, and extending it into the cultural realm, Harrison argues that youth is essential for culture's innovative drive and flashes of genius. At the same time, however, youth-which Harrison sees as more protracted than ever-is a luxury that requires the stability and wisdom of our elders and the institutions. "While genius liberates the novelties of the future," Harrison writes, "wisdom inherits the legacies of the past, renewing them in the process of handing them down." A heady, deeply learned excursion, rich with ideas and insights, Juvenescence could only have been written by Robert Pogue Harrison. No reader who has wondered at our culture's obsession with youth should miss it.Review Quotes
"Harrison has a wonderful way of inspiring, yet he does not extrapolate on current events, and offers no prognosis. In the preface, he says that he confronted a choice whether to either write a very short book or a very long one--readers will wish he had written a longer one."-- "Rain Taxi"
"Harrison may be the single most important writer in the humanities today."-- "Southern Review"
Winner of the 2015 Bridge Award in nonfiction for the book that most aided the goal of mutual understanding between Italian and American Cultures, presented by the Casa delle Letterature of the Municipality of Rome in partnership with the American Initiative for Italian Culture, the American Embassy in Rome, the National Italian American Foundation, and the Federation of Italian Writers, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC, the Calandra Institute of New York, the Italian Institute of Culture in Washington, DC, the American Academy in Rome, and other cultural institution in the two countries.-- "Casa delle Letterature"
"The book is somehow both digressive and closely reasoned. . . . It's odd and brilliant--clearly the product of thought given time to ripen."--Inside Higher Ed "Scott McLemee"
About the Author
Robert Pogue Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Professor of Italian literature and chair of graduate studies in Italian at Stanford University. He is the author of Forests, The Dominion of the Dead, and Gardens, all published by the University of Chicago Press.Dimensions (Overall): 8.5 Inches (H) x 5.5 Inches (W) x .49 Inches (D)
Weight: .6 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 231
Genre: Social Science
Sub-Genre: Anthropology
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Theme: Cultural & Social
Format: Paperback
Author: Robert Pogue Harrison
Language: English
Street Date: April 19, 2016
TCIN: 1006093654
UPC: 9780226381961
Item Number (DPCI): 247-34-7232
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 0.49 inches length x 5.5 inches width x 8.5 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.6 pounds
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