Joseph Adamson

Joseph Adamson is Professor Emeritus of English at McMaster University. His current area of research focuses on the relevance of Silvan Tomkins’ affect and script theory to literature, in particular how affective and shame dynamics inform and shape a writer’s life and work. He has written on the role of shame in a variety of writers, such as Melville, Hawthorne, Faulkner, and George Eliot. He is the author of Melville, Shame, and the Evil Eye (SUNY P, 1997) and co-editor of Scenes of Shame (SUNY P, 1999), an interdisciplinary collection of essays on shame and literature. He is currently working on a book-length study of the role of shame, distress, and the depressive posture in George Eliot. Other relevant publications include:

“‘Guardian of the Inmost Me: Hawthorne and Shame.'” In Scenes of Shame. Ed. Joseph Adamson and Hilary Clark. Albany, N.Y.: State U of New York P, 1999. 53-82.

“Error That Is Anguish to Its Own Nobleness”: Shame and Tragedy in The Mill on the Floss. American Journal of Psychoanalysis. Special Issue: “Shame and Shame Dynamics.” Ed. Benjamin Kilborne. December 2003, 63. 4: 317-331.

“Struggling Brothers: Recognition and Méconnaisssance, Affect and Script in Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses.” In Misrecognition, Race, and the Real in Faulkner’s Fiction, ed. Michael Zeitlin, Andre Bleikasten, Nicole Molineux, Études Faulkneriennes 4, 2004: 17-38.

“Emotional Rescue: Shame and the Depressive Posture in George Eliot”. PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts. June 29, 2009. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/articles/psyart/2009_adamson01.shtml.
June 29, 2009. 13,274 words. Received: 2009|| Published: June 29, 2009|| Copyright © 2009 Joseph Adamson.