Collected Works of Norbert Elias
17 total works
v. 6
This volume contains two of Elias' shorter books. "The Loneliness of the Dying" is one of his most admired works - drawing on a range of literary and historical sources, it is sensitive and even moving in its discussion of the changing social context of death and dying over the centuries. Today, when death is less familiar to most people in everyday life, the dying frequently experience the loneliness of social isolation. "Humana Conditio", written in 1985 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, has never before been published in English. 'Human beings', writes Elias, 'have made the reciprocal murdering of people a permanent institution. Wars are part of a fixed tradition of humanity. They are anchored in its social institutions and in the social habitus of people, even the most peace-loving'. Elias' meditation on the human lot ranges over the whole of human history, to international relations and the future of humanity.
v. 7
Elias effectively founded the modern sociology of sport in collaboration with Eric Dunning in the 1960s and 1970s. They argue that in highly constrained, 'civilised' societies, sports - as well as a spectrum of other cultural and leisure activities - are to be understood not in terms of 'relaxation' but rather of the need for pleasurable excitement and its pleasurable resolution.The topics range historically from the violence of the ancient Greek Olympic Games to foxhunting, early forms of football, and the question of why Britain proved to be the cradle of so many modern sports. And, today, what are the effects of achievement striving in elite sports? Why has spectator violence become such a problem? Why do so many sports retain the character of a 'male preserve'? Originally written in English, this volume has been thoroughly revised by Eric Dunning and includes one hitherto unpublished essay by Elias and a new essay by Dunning, bringing up to date his interpretation of football hooliganism.
v. 9
In this profound book, Elias characteristically turns an ancient philosophical question - what is time? - into a researchable theoretical-empirical problem. What we call 'time' is neither an innate property of the human mind nor an immutable quality of the 'external' world. Rather it is an achievement of the human capacity for 'synthesis', for using symbolic thought to make connections between two or more sequences of events. In the course of human social development, that capacity has itself changed and developed. It is originally written in English. Two later additional sections have been translated by Edmund Jephcott.
v. 2
This classic study of the life of the nobility at the royal court of France, especially under Louis XIV, has long been out of print. Recognised by historians as the benchmark for studies of early modern courts, which were an important but long neglected phase in the growth of the 'civilising' constraints imposed on people in increasingly complex networks of interdependence. Elias shows how courtiers - and finally even the king himself - were entrapped in a web of etiquette and ceremonial, how their expenses, even down to details of their houses and households, were dictated by their rank rather than their income. Includes appendix on the parallels between factional competition at the royal court and within Hitler's regime. Originally published in German in 1969 as Die hofische Gesellschaft.
v. 10
Originally published in 1991 and now reissued by Continuum International, this book consists of three sections. The first, written in 1939, was either left out of Elias's most famous book, The Civilizing Process, or was written along with it. Part 2 was written between 1940 and 1960. Part 3 is from 1987. The entire book is a study of the unique relationship between the individual and society--Elias's best-known theme and the basis for the discipline of sociology.
The complete edition of 18 volumes of the Collected Works of Norbert Elias in English. Elias wrote in both English and German, and in all his work runs to 14 books and around 90 other essays, along with poems and numerous interviews. The 18 volumes of the Collected Works contain many writings not previously published in English, and a small number never published before. All of the texts have been thoroughly checked and revised, by editors who have a deep knowledge of Elias' thinking; they have inserted many clarifications, cross-references and explanatory notes. The scholarly editions of the Collected Works replace all earlier editions of Elias' work, and are indispensable for everyone who makes reference to his writings. The complete set of 18 titles consists of: 9781904558392 Vol. 1 Early Writings; 9781904558408 Vol. 2 The Court Society; 9781906359041 Vol. 3 On the Process of Civilisation; 9781904558927 Vol. 4 The Established and the Outsiders; 9781906359058 Vol. 5 What is Sociology?; 9781906359065 Vol. 6 Loneliness of the Dying & Humana Condition; 9781904558439 Vol. 7 Quest for Excitement; 9781904558422 Vol. 8 Involvement and Detachment; 9781904558415 Vol.
9 An Essay on Time; 9781906359072 Vol. 10 The Society of Individuals; 9781906359089 Vol. 11 Studies on the Germans; 9781906359096 Vol. 12 Mozart & Other Essays on Courtly Art; 9781906359102 Vol. 13 The Symbol Theory; 9781906359010 Vol. 14 Essays I: On the Sociology of Knowledge and the Sciences; 9781906359027 Vol. 15 Essays II: On Civilising Processes, State Formation and National Identity; and, 9781906359034 Vol. 16 Essays III: On Sociology & the Humanities. It also includes: 9781906359119 Vol. 17 Interviews & Autobiographical Reflections; and, 9781906359126 Vol. 18 Supplements & Index to Collected. Works
9 An Essay on Time; 9781906359072 Vol. 10 The Society of Individuals; 9781906359089 Vol. 11 Studies on the Germans; 9781906359096 Vol. 12 Mozart & Other Essays on Courtly Art; 9781906359102 Vol. 13 The Symbol Theory; 9781906359010 Vol. 14 Essays I: On the Sociology of Knowledge and the Sciences; 9781906359027 Vol. 15 Essays II: On Civilising Processes, State Formation and National Identity; and, 9781906359034 Vol. 16 Essays III: On Sociology & the Humanities. It also includes: 9781906359119 Vol. 17 Interviews & Autobiographical Reflections; and, 9781906359126 Vol. 18 Supplements & Index to Collected. Works
v. 5
What is Sociology? presents in concise and provocative form the major ideas of a seminal thinker whose work-spanning more than four decades-is only now gaining the recognition here it has long had in Germany and France. Unlike other post-war sociologists, Norbert Elias has always held the concept of historical development among his central concerns; his dynamic theories of the evolution of modern man have remedied the historical and epistemological shortcomings of structualism and ethno-methodology. What is Sociology? refines the arguments that were first found in Elias' massive work on the civilizing process, in which he formulated his major assertions about the interdependence of the making of modern man and modern society. It is Elias' contention that changes in personality structure-embodied in phenomena ranging from table manners and hygiene habits to rites of punishment and courtly love-inevitably reflect and mould patterns of control generated by new political and social instututions. Elias' rejection of a dichotomy between individual and society, and his use of psychoanalysis, political theory, and social history, help restore a fullness of resource to sociology.
v. 8
This essay has, since it was first published in 1956, been regarded as a classic statement on sociological method. Here it is combined with two other of the author's essays. His study represents a departure from traditional sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge. It explores how people orient themselves in their world, by means of ideals, fantasy beliefs, wishful thinking, fact-related knowledge or feeling impulses, such as hope and fear. The author argues that the structure of knowledge in any particular field and the social level of danger or fear in that field or in society at large are interdependent. If one of them changes in a particular direction, the other, sooner or later, is likely to change in a corresponding direction. The concepts "involvement" and "detachment" are indicators of these directions. In highly developed societies knowledge is split. It has reached a relatively high level of detachment in the field of non-human nature while knowledge of human societies and of human beings generally represents a high level of involvement. The human picture with which the author works is no longer the derivative of an isolated individual.
Hence a host of traditional concepts connected with this idea such as transcendentalism and positivism lose their function and meaning. Like magic-mythical concepts of nature, ideological concepts of society become recognizable as forms of knowledge which are more involved than detached. The empirical evidence shows a long-term process of change from dominant involvement to dominant detachment in people's knowledge and experience of non-human nature which is not matched by a corresponding directional change in the standard knowledge of human societies and their individual members.
Hence a host of traditional concepts connected with this idea such as transcendentalism and positivism lose their function and meaning. Like magic-mythical concepts of nature, ideological concepts of society become recognizable as forms of knowledge which are more involved than detached. The empirical evidence shows a long-term process of change from dominant involvement to dominant detachment in people's knowledge and experience of non-human nature which is not matched by a corresponding directional change in the standard knowledge of human societies and their individual members.
v. 11
Studies on the Germans, Volume 11 of the Collected Works, was first published in German in 1989, exactly 50 years after Elias' most famous work, On the Process of Civilisation. The essays in the book were written independently of each other over three decades. In this new edition, Elias' original English text of the extremely important essay 'The breakdown of civilisation' is published for the first time. Other essays include those on duelling and its wider social significance, as well as on nationalism, civilisation and violence, and post-war terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany. All the essays have been newly annotated by the editors, especially to make clear many historical references that Elias, unrealistically, assumed his readers would understand without further explanation.
v. 18
Vol. 18 of the Collected Works, besides including the consolidated index to the Collected Works as a whole, contains two substantial supplements: a long and important critique on Freud written in the last weeks of Elias' life, not previously published in English; and an essay, not previously published in any language, on the anthropologist-philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl and the problem of 'the logical unity of humankind'. Both essays fill important gaps in Elias' work, and deal with common criticisms of his thought.
v. 17
Vol. 17 of the Collected Works can serve as an excellent introduction to Elias's thinking overall. In the last decade of his life, Elias gave many interviews in which he discussed aspects of his work, rebutting many common misunderstandings of his thinking and further developing ideas sketched out in his writings. Besides a selection of these 'academic' interviews (many of them not previously published in English, or not published at all), the book contains his essay in intellectual autobiography and a long interview in which he talks about his own life.
v. 16
Almost half of the 28 essays in this volume have not been published in English before, and many of the others were little known. Some directly express Elias' dissatisfaction with the ahistorical, present-centred trend of modern sociology. Others scintillatingly show how wide ranging were Elias' own sociological interests. Topics include, among many others: the work of Theodor W. Adorno; sociology and psychiatry; psychosomatic illness; human emotions; communities in long-term perspective; the changing balance of power between the sexes; African art; football; and even pigeon racing.
v. 14
Between the end of the Second World War and his death in 1990, Elias published almost 60 articles on a wide range of topics. About a third of them have not previously appeared in English, and many of the rest were widely scattered and difficult to obtain. They are being published in three thematic volumes, all edited by Richard Kilminster and Stephen Mennell. In this volume, Elias develops his sociological theory of knowledge and the sciences - in the plural - to counter what he sees as the inadequacies of traditional philosophical theories. Included are savage attacks on the philosophy of Karl Popper and its damaging influence, a brilliant essay on scientific establishments, and essays on Thomas More and the social uses of utopias.
v. 15
Essays II: On Civilising Processes, State Formation and National Identity
by Norbert Elias
Published 5 January 2009
Eleven of the 18 essays by Norbert Elias collected in this volume have not been published previously in English, and several of the remainder were not easily obtained. The themes of this volume represent major extensions of and reflections upon the ideas first advanced in "The Civilizing Process". The topics include violence and civilisation; the civilising of parents; privacy; conflict and change within communities; public opinion and national character in Britain; the charismatic leadership of Adolf Hitler; and the fear of death.
v. 3
This is Volume 3 in the "Collected Works of Norbert Elias", translated by Edmund Jephcott. Recognised as one of the most important works of sociology in the last century, "On the Process of Civilisation" has been influential and widely discussed across the whole range of the humanities and social sciences. This sumptuous new edition, completely revised with many corrections and clarifications, includes colour plates of all the 13 drawings from "Das Mittelaterliche Hausbuch" to which Elias refers in his famous discussion of 'Scenes from the life of a knight'. Beginning with his celebrated study of the changing standards of behaviour of the secular upper classes in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, Elias demonstrates how 'psychological' changes in habitus and emotion management were linked to wider transformations in power relations, especially the monopolisation of violence and taxation by more increasingly effective state apparatuses.
v. 12
Like his father Leopold, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was dependent on a court aristocracy in whose eyes he was little more than a domestic servant. Unlike his father, however, his personal makeup was already that of the freelance artist who sought to follow the flow of his own artistic conscience and imagination rather than the courtly conventions and standards of the day. In "Mozart: the Sociology of a Genius", Elias paints a portrait of this extraordinarily gifted artist born into a society that did not yet possess either the concept of 'genius' or (at least in music) that of freelance artist. The apparent contradictions of his character - the refined elegance of his compositions and the coarseness of his lavatorial humour - reflect his uncomfortable and eventually tragic straddling of two social worlds. The volume also includes two major essays on cognate topics, previously unpublished in English: on the courtly painter Watteau's "Embarkation for Cythera", and on 'The fate of German Baroque poetry: between the traditions of court and middle class'.
v. 1
The writings in this volume previously unpublished in English include the essay 'On Seeing in Nature', his doctoral dissertation 'Idea and Individual', a response to Karl Mannheim's famous paper on cultural competition, and a number of short stories contributed to a newspaper. Other essays collected together here concern primitive art, the sociology of German anti-Semitism, kitsch style and the age of kitsch, and the expulsion of the Huguenots from France. This edition includes as an appendix a draft outline of Elias' Habilitation thesis begun under Alfred Weber. "Early Writings" have been translated from the German edition, Fruschriften, published by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt/Main as volume 1 of the Norbert Elias Gesammelte Schriften, 2002.