Articles liés à Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery

Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery - Couverture souple

DeGloma, Thomas

 
9780226175881: Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 022617588X ISBN 13 : 9780226175881
Editeur : University of Chicago Press, 2014

Synopsis

The chorus of the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace” reads, “I once was lost, but now am found, / Was blind but now I see.” Composed by a minister who formerly worked as a slave trader, the song expresses his experience of divine intervention that ultimately caused him to see the error of his ways. This theme of personal awakening is a feature of countless stories throughout history, where the “lost” and the “blind” are saved from darkness and despair by suddenly seeing the light.

In Seeing the Light, Thomas DeGloma explores such accounts of personal awakening, in stories that range from the discovery of a religious truth to remembering a childhood trauma to embracing a new sexual orientation. He reveals a common social pattern: When people discover a life-changing truth, they typically ally with a new community. Individuals then use these autobiographical stories to shape their stances on highly controversial issues such as childhood abuse, war and patriotism, political ideology, human sexuality, and religion. Thus, while such stories are seemingly very personal, they also have a distinctly social nature. Tracing a wide variety of narratives through nearly three thousand years of history, Seeing the Light uncovers the common threads of such stories and reveals the crucial, little-recognized social logic of personal discovery.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Thomas DeGloma is associate professor of sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery and coeditor of Interpreting Contentious Memory: Countermemories and Social Conflicts Over the Past and The Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of Chicago Press
Date d'édition
2014
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
022617588X
ISBN 13 
9780226175881
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
256
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible