Anger in the Long Nineteenth Century

Book excerpt: This edited collection traverses the genre of anger studies by documenting its transition from the Classical age up to our present-day cognizance of the philosophical, socio-historical, psycho-physiological and pathological theorizations of anger. The book illustrates how literature may systematically document and even institutionalize primal, emotive outbursts, providing meaningful analysis for scholars across various disciplines. The contributions here cover a wide spectrum of critical works, ranging from Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Seneca’s De Ira and Plutarch’s On Restraining Anger to Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra, as well as notable nineteenth century texts by authors such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Bronte, Matthew Arnold, Algernon Swinburne, Rudyard Kipling and Henry Lawson.