Character
The History of a Cultural Obsession
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
What is “character”?
Since at least Aristotle’s time, philosophers, theologians, moralists, artists, and scientists have pondered the enigma of human character. In its oldest usage, “character” derives from a word for engraving or stamping, yet over time, it has come to mean a moral idea, a type, a literary persona, and a physical or physiological manifestation observable in works of art and scientific experiments. It is an essential term in drama and the focus of self-help books.
In Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession, Marjorie Garber points out that character seems more relevant than ever today, omnipresent in discussions of politics, ethics, gender, morality, and the psyche. References to character flaws, character issues, and character assassination and allegations of “bad” and “good” character are inescapable in the media and in contemporary political debates. What connection does “character” in this moral or ethical sense have with the concept of a character in a novel or a play? Do our notions about fictional characters catalyze our ideas about moral character? Can character be “formed” or taught in schools, in scouting, in the home? From Plutarch to John Stuart Mill, from Shakespeare to Darwin, from Theophrastus to Freud, from nineteenth-century phrenology to twenty-first-century brain scans, the search for the sources and components of human character still preoccupies us.
Today, with the meaning and the value of this term in question, no issue is more important, and no topic more vital, surprising, and fascinating. With her distinctive verve, humor, and vast erudition, Marjorie Garber explores the stakes of these conflations, confusions, and heritages, from ancient Greece to the present day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Garber (Shakespeare's Ghost Writers), a Harvard professor of English and environmental studies, offers an intriguing and informative look at the concept of personal character, focusing on the term's use in Britain and the U.S. over the past 200 years. Garber examines how the idea of "character" roughly (if not always) equated to moral worth has become particularly prominent since Donald Trump's election and attendant ethics controversies. She then traces out how the understanding of character has shifted over time. Garber covers the idea of a national character, explores Boy Scout founder Robert Baden-Powell's belief in character as a trait that can be developed with "factory" efficiency, and examines how "character" factors became a cover for anti-Semitism in early 20th-century Ivy League admissions. Garber is skilled at drawing connections between different cultural moments; for instance, she connects modern and, to her, flawed efforts to map character through brain scans with the 19th-century pseudoscience of phrenology. While Garber leaves her discussion open-ended, her information-rich book will be helpful to readers in highlighting how a concern with character has been central to modern life.
