The Neuroticism of William Dean Howells

PMLA ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-238
Author(s):  
Edwin Harrison Cady
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
William Dean Howells ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
American Life ◽  
American Novels ◽  
Psychological Difficulties ◽  
Artistic Career

Since the death of William Dean Howells in 1920 it has become a commonplace of criticism to remark that he failed to carry his theories of realism into an artistic practice adequate to all of the central facts in American life. He did not treat what William James called “the slaughter-houses and indecencies without end on which our life is founded” and which formed much of the content of the novels of such Howells proteges as Crane, Garland, and Norris. There can hardly be room to challenge this. Howells never truly faced the violent and sordid facets of reality. Mention and object to them as evil he could; leave the abstract and deal with them intimately, personally, objectively, or even imaginatively he could not. I should like here to suggest that the primary source of that inability was simply that life-long psychological difficulties left Howells with a neurotic condition which literally made it impossible for him to know and understand as realities the portions of pain and filth and terror in human living with which a major writer must be at least vicariously intimate. How much the production of the mass of autobiographical material which he produced during the latter decades of his life might represent an attempt to purge himself of the neurotic influences which seem to have haunted his mind throughout the peak years of his fecund artistic career I am not competent to say. But it seems clear that he shrank neurotically from the imaginative absorption of painful reality which truly searching American novels would have necessitated.

Congregations

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Chaves
Keyword(s):  
Computer Technology ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
High Income ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Congregational Life ◽  
American Life ◽  
Large Churches ◽  
College Educated ◽  
Source Of Information

This chapter discusses six trends in congregational life: looser connections between congregations and denominations, more computer technology, more informal worship, older congregants, more high-income and college-educated congregants, and, what is perhaps most important, more people concentrated in very large churches. Taken together, these trends show that congregations are shaped by the same cultural, social, and economic pressures affecting American life and institutions more generally. The National Congregations Study (NCS), which began in 1998, is the primary source of information for several of the trends described in this chapter. As with change in American religion as a whole, trends in congregational life should be seen against the backdrop of substantial continuity, especially for the relatively brief period covered by the NCS.

William Dean Howells: An American Life

1972 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 837
Author(s):  
David W. Noble ◽  
Kenneth S. Lynn
Keyword(s):  
William Dean Howells ◽  
American Life

William Dean Howells: An American Life.

1972 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 665
Author(s):  
George Arms ◽  
Kenneth S. Lynn
Keyword(s):  
William Dean Howells ◽  
American Life

Digitally Mediated Art Inspired by Technology Integration

2018 ◽  
pp. 121-162
Author(s):  
John Antoine Labadie
Keyword(s):  
Technology Integration ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Personal History ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Scientific Illustration ◽  
Studio Practice ◽  
The Many ◽  
Artistic Career

Artistic practice is a uniquely personal thing. As such artistic activities and the products produced thereby often develop and unfold in highly idiosyncratic ways. In reading a comprehensive artistic biography one often becomes familiar with the who, what, where when, how and why of a creative individual's formative influences, education and the development of their art. Following that model, in this Chapter I am attempting to elucidate the progression of my artistic practice from pre- to post-digital activities. After more than 25 years of blending computer-drive practice with traditional media studio practice my artwork is truly digitally mediated and heavily influenced by the many possibilities offered by technology integration. Perhaps through showing this unique range of influences, activities and experiences it will be possible to more clearly illustrate how influences as diverse as a degree program in traditional painting, multiple projects in scientific illustration, and years spent in the practice and practical application of computer science have inspired me to move along a path from pencils to pixels and archeological sites to digital displays in museums internationally. It is my hope that this “personal history” can inspire others to see less obvious possibilities and move ahead into realms that might be difficult to predict at any point along potential the arc of one's artistic career.

Digitally Mediated Art Inspired by Scientific Research

2015 ◽  
pp. 436-471
Author(s):  
John Antoine Labadie
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Personal History ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Scientific Illustration ◽  
Artistic Career

Artistic practice is a uniquely personal thing. Artistic activities and the products produced thereby often develop and unfold in highly idiosyncratic ways. In reading a comprehensive artistic biography one often becomes familiar with the who, what, where, when, how, and why of an individual's formative influences, education, and the development of their art. In this chapter, the author shows the progression of his artistic practice from pre- to post-digital activities. Perhaps through showing this range of influences, activities, and experiences, it will be possible to clearly illustrate how scientific illustration and computer science have inspired the author to move along a path from pencils to pixels and archeological sites to digital displays in museums internationally. It is the author's hope that this “personal history” can inspire others to see less obvious possibilities and move ahead into realms that might be difficult to predict at any point along the arc of one's artistic career.

William Dean Howells: An American Life. Kenneth S. Lynn

1972 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-231
Author(s):  
William M. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
William Dean Howells ◽  
American Life

The Feminist Revelation

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Christina Sommers
Keyword(s):  
David Hume ◽  
William James ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Moral Truth ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Moral Philosopher ◽  
Common Opinion ◽  
Principles Of Justice

In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association for the fall of 1988, we find the view that “the power of philosophy lies in its radicalness.” The author, Tom Foster Digby, tells us that in our own day “the radical potency of philosophy is particularly well-illustrated by contemporary feminist philosophy” in ways that “could eventually reorder human life.” The claim that philosophy is essentially radical has deep historical roots.Aristotle and Plato each created a distinctive style of social philosophy. Following Ernest Barker, I shall call Aristotle's way of doing social philosophy “whiggish,” having in mind that the O.E.D. characterizes ‘whig’ as “a word that says in one syllable what ‘conservative liberal’ says in seven.” Later whigs shared with Aristotle the conviction that traditional arrangements have great moral weight, and that common opinion is a primary source of moral truth. The paradigm example of a whig moral philosopher is Henry Sidgwick, with his constant appeal to Common Sense and to “established morality.” On the more liberal side, we have philosophers like David Hume who cautions us to “adjust [political] innovations as much as possible to the ancient fabric,” and William James who insists that the liberal philosopher must reject radicalism.In modern times, many social philosophers have followed the more radical example of Plato, who was convinced that common opinion was benighted and in need of much consciousness-raising. Looking on society as a Cave that distorted real values, Plato showed a great readiness to discount traditional arrangements. He was perhaps the first philosopher to construct an ideal of a society that reflected principles of justice, inspiring generations of utopian social philosophers.

To know as you draw: Exploring the city through drawing

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-115
Author(s):  
Tânia A. Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Subjective Approach ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
The City

Standing apart from traditional illustration city illustrations are interpretations by illustrators that take urban space as their primary source. The practice of drawing in the city, what I call drawing in situ, is part of a methodology to construct city illustrations that aims to know as you go carrying out a performance that is not premeditated before departure but discovered along the way. These illustrated cities work as mediators between the physical city and the illustrator’s imagination striving to present alternative perspectives about urban space. In this paper, I reflect on how subjective approach and embodied experience in the city emphasize the illustrator’s skills to contemplate, understand, and synthesize the city in one or a series of drawings. The results from drawing in situ become an extension of the illustrator’s body: intimately connected to movement and the direct experience of urban space. Far from simplifying the depiction of the city, the artistic practice as research explores the dynamics between different urban dimensions (architecture, moods, people, and stories) employing the artistic techniques better suited to expressively represent the illustrator’s encounter with the surrounding environment. My artistic practice as research, here presented, regards the different ways in which the dynamics of the city enhance, complement, or contradict urban perception and the understanding of urban space by the illustrator. It shows that the practice of drawing in situ is simultaneously engaging with and describing the city, experiencing, and learning through movement and creation. The drawing ability of the illustrator appears as a skilful way to disturb the usual perceptions of the cities focusing on the entanglements of lived experience in which the illustrator also takes part.

scholarly journals Living Precarious Lives? Time and Temporality in Visual Arts Careers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Paula Serafini ◽  
Mark Banks
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Professional Artists ◽  
Artistic Career ◽  
Good Descriptor

Although precarity has always been a characteristic feature of artistic labour, many critics now claim it is becoming more widespread and engrained. However, while the idea of precarity offers a good descriptor of the conditions of artistic labour, it also has its limits. Firstly, it tends to gloss over social differences in the distribution of precariousness. And secondly, precarity tends to imply a universal condition of ‘temporal poverty’ where all social experience appears dominated by the frenetic demands of a speeded-up, unstable and fragmented social world. In this article, we show how these two omissions are interlinked and prevent a more nuanced understanding of time in artistic labour. Drawing from findings from empirical research with working visual artists in the Midlands of the UK, we propose three schematic ways of thinking about the organisation of time and temporality in routine artistic practice. We name these three temporal contexts ‘the artistic career’; ‘the time of making art’ and ‘the temporality of the work’. By researching how artists might be differently positioned in relation to time, we suggest, we not only obtain a more precise understanding of how professional artists’ lives are organised, managed and lived, but also a more distinct understanding of precarity itself.

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