Possessed: A Cultural History of Hoarding
- ISBN-10
- 1501752820
- ISBN-13
- 9781501752827
- Series
- Possessed
- Category
- Literary Criticism
- Pages
- 264
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2021-05-15
- Publisher
- Cornell University Press
- Author
- Rebecca R. Falkoff
Description
In Possessed, Rebecca R. Falkoff asks how hoarding—once a paradigm of economic rationality—came to be defined as a mental illness. Hoarding is unique among the disorders included in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5, because its diagnosis requires the existence of a material entity: the hoard. Possessed therefore considers the hoard as an aesthetic object produced by clashing perspectives about the meaning or value of objects. The 2000s have seen a surge of cultural interest in hoarding and those whose possessions overwhelm their living spaces. Unlike traditional economic elaborations of hoarding, which focus on stockpiles of bullion or grain, contemporary hoarding results in accumulations of objects that have little or no value or utility. Analyzing themes and structures of hoarding across a range of literary and visual texts—including works by Nikolai Gogol, Arthur Conan Doyle, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Luigi Malerba, Song Dong and E. L. Doctorow—Falkoff traces the fraught materialities of the present to cluttered spaces of modernity: bibliomaniacs' libraries, flea markets, crime scenes, dust-heaps, and digital archives. Possessed shows how the figure of the hoarder has come to personify the economic, epistemological, and ecological conditions of modernity. Thanks to generous funding from New York University and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other Open Access repositories.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Salem Possessed
By Paul BoyerThe Social Origins of Witchcraft Paul Boyer. mentioned, 209 Mather, Rev. Increase, on w. evidence (in ... Samuel; entries for other individual ministers “Modell of Christian Charity.” See Winthrop, John Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of ...
-
Possessed by Ghosts: Exorcisms in the 21st Century
By Wanda PratnickaThe subject of the book could be a panacea for very many of our world's misfortunes.
-
Possessed: Why We Want More Than We Need
By Bruce HoodTimely, engaging and persuasive, Possessed is the first book to explore how ownership has us enthralled in relentless pursuit of a false happiness, with damaging consequences for society and the planet - and how we can stop buying into it.
-
These Our Bodies, Possessed by Light
These Our Bodies, Possessed by Light
-
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
By Elif BatumanLove and the novel, the individual in history, the existential plight of the graduate student: all find their place in The Possessed.
-
Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism
By Thomas B. AllenThe diary, the most complete account of an exorcism since the Middle Ages, is published for the first time in this revised edition of Possessed.
-
A Boy Possessed
By Jon AthanAnd is it too late to save Casey? Jon Athan, the author of Her Suffering and Madness at Madison Mall, brings you a battle between good and evil, mind and soul, and father and son in this supernatural horror story.
-
Demon Possessed
By Stacia KaneFrom Stacia Kane comes the third novel in a hot urban fantasy series that's perfect for fans of Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, and Kelley Armstrong.
-
Possessed Victorians: Extra Spheres in Nineteenth-Century Mystical Writings
By Sarah A. WillburnIn her absorbing study of nineteenth-century mystical writings, Sarah Willburn formulates a new conception of individualism that offers a fresh look at Victorian subjectivity.
-
The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature and Civilization
By Frederick M. SmithSmith analyzes Indic literature from all ages-the earliest Vedic texts; the Mahabharata; Buddhist, Jain, Yogic, Ayurvedic, and Tantric texts; Hindu devotional literature; Sanskrit drama and narrative literature; and more than a hundred ...