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"In this book, Diana Senechal confronts a culture that has come to depend on instant updates and communication at the expense of solitude. Schools today emphasize rapid group work and fragmented activity, not the thoughtful study of complex subjects. TheInternet offers contact with others throughout the day and night; we lose the ability to be apart, even in our minds. Yet solitude plays an essential role in literature, education, democracy, relationships, and matters of conscience. Throughout its analyses and argument, the book calls not for drastic changes but for a subtle shift: an attitude that honors solitude without descending into dogma"-- Provided by publisher.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Acknowledgments Chapter 2 Introduction: The Chatter of the Present Chapter 3 Definitions of Solitude Chapter 4 Distraction: The Flip Side of Engagement Chapter 5 Antigone: Literature as ìThinking Apartî Chapter 6 The Workshop Model in New York City Chapter 7 The Folly of the ìBig Ideaî Chapter 8 The Cult of Success Chapter 9 Mass Personalization and the ìUnderground Manî Chapter 10 The Need for Loneliness Chapter 11 The Practice of Solitude Chapter 12 Discernment and the Public Sphere Chapter 13 Conclusion: Setting up Shop Chapter 14 Bibliography Chapter 15 About the Author Chapter 16 Index
About the author
Diana Senechal holds a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Yale; her translations of the Lithuanian poetry of Tomas Venclova have appeared in two books, Winter Dialogue and The Junction. A former New York City public school teacher, she has written for numerous education blogs and magazines. She is the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, awarded by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.
