Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession

by Marjorie Garber

This panoramic look at the concept of character reveals cultural shifts, unexploded fallacies, and more than a little bad behavior, rhetorical and otherwise. What does it mean to have character or to say that one has character issues? To what extent are character traits or character types fixed or mutable, innate or conditioned, essential or enacted? What about the character of a nation or a group of people?

Surveying philosophical, literary, and social science perspectives as well as recent political rhetoric, the author finds that character is a bewilderingly slippery abstraction that has endured and evolved. Once an assertion of ethical substance and personal virtue, more recent usage implies that character is something to be performed, not built. Too often, it is defined by its absence, as in actions deemed out of character or when someone's character is praised despite despicable actions. The author wonders if the concept is so hollowed out by misuse that it should be retired, but in the end, she views character as a mirror reflecting the contradictions

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Literary Criticism, Writing

464 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 2020

About the author

Marjorie B. Garber (born June 11, 1944) is a professor at Harvard University and the author of a wide variety of books, most notably ones about William Shakespeare and aspects of popular culture including sexuality.

She wrote Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety, a ground breaking theoretical work on transvestitism's contribution to culture. Other works include Sex and Real Estate:Why We Love Houses, Academic Instincts, Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, Shakespeare After All, and Dog Love (which is not primarily about bestiality, except for one chapter titled "Sex and the Single Dog").

Her book Shakespeare After All (Pantheon, 2004) was chosen one of Newsweek's ten best nonfiction books of the year, and was awarded the 2005 Christian Gauss Book Award from Phi Beta Kappa.

She was educated at Swarthmore College (B.A., 1966; L.H.D., 2004) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1969).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "cultural studies at its fuckin best" stars !!!

4th Favorite Read of 2024 Award

Thank you to Netgalley, the author/professor and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for an ecopy. This was released July 2020. I am providing an honest review.

There is no way that I can do this book justice so I will not even try.

Ms. Garber has a brilliant and analytical mind and through careful research gives us fascinating glimpses into the history of character in philosophy, psychology, anthropology, evolution, literature and arts. This is erudite, endlessly fascinating and thought provoking to the maximum. I have so much more to explore and this tome expanded and solidified my own beliefs and understandings on the nature of human character.

Absolutely SUPERB and I have become a huge fanboy of Ms. Garber. Hmmm what does that say about my own Character ? Wait don't answer that !

[Jason Comely · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich and well-written treatment on character and personality. The book goes a bit too much into politics and dwells too long on pseudoscience, for my taste anyway, but the rest is pure gold.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I reviewed the wide range of topics covered by the respective chapters of this book, I wondered if the text would flow or seem disjointed. The text does flow together nicely; the chapters are arranged so that similar topics are covered back-to-back. What really connects this book is Professor Garber's lively prose and consistent -- but not heavy-handed -- references to the questions at the heart of the book. The book's introduction works very well to ground the reader in some of the main ideas about the very word "character" and the various concepts implicated by its use (both in modern times and historically..

It also does an exemplary job of showing off the author's conversational style of writing. I was worried this book might make for dry reading, but the narration is not only fluid but rather light. I experienced the following effect as I read: it seemed the narrator was trying to engage my interest personally. The subject matter was more accessible and less obscure/abstract than I thought it might be. I expect many readers to enjoy this book if they find the description interesting. There are frequent references to Shakespeare characters as well as some historical figures that may not be contextualized much, so the reader might want to look those references up on a few occasions.

I enjoyed this book heartily, and I would like to thank the publisher for granting me access to an eGalley on NetGalley.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting member of the popular genre of books about ordinary things and concepts that we don’t think about too much, which usually make us think too much about them, not a problem so long as they are skimmable, which this book is. I was most interested in the first half of the book, which is focused on character; less interested in historical looks at phrenology, character types, and the like. My desire to see arguments about the extent to which what we do is context-based than reflective of a hard-and-fast character was not fully satisfied, but the author didn’t promise this. Well written and researched by this Shakespeare scholar.

[Daniel Schulof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceptional research into the ways that significant literary, political, and social science figures have incorporated notions of character into their work. But the research is packaged into a book that provides little more than a survey or an outline of notes. We get almost nothing from Garber herself on the stability/validity or basis for or future of character/personality. And she doesn't make enough of an effort to draw out themes and patterns. There is very little in the way of analysis. Mostly just "such and such said this..." I also felt that the contemporary cases she chose to focus on were a bit too "well duh." I would have appreciated if she had dug more deeply into the ways that modern literary masters and cutting-edge scientific and philosophical minds are approaching ideas of personality and character. It's not very interesting to observe that Donald Trump doesn't talk about character in ways that aren't consistent or honest.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing, wide-ranging cultural history of the concept of "character" examining it through linguistic, ethical, literary, sociological, psychological, scientific, and pseudoscientific dimensions.

[fivestarbookreview]

What is character? We know when someone has it or, more often these days, when they don’t. We recognize character types and obey the character limit. It is sometimes praiseworthy – a person of great character – and sometimes gently disparaging – you’re such a character. In her thoroughly researched if not always engaging new book, Marjorie Garber explores the history of one of our slipperiest concepts. Character comes at its topic from all angles, the formation of boy scouting, phrenology, and Freud just to name a few. Garber is gamely determined to track shifting definitions from the ancient Greeks up to the present shift to a determinedly negative connotation. Of course she is unsuccessful but for Garber’s pellucid logic and gently jocular wit, the definition was never really the destination.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ended up skipping the intro and then couldn't finish the first chapter. It is difficult to read and follow along "when" (every) "other" (word) "is" (in) "quotes " and (parentheses). Bummed because I was hoping to get great information for writing.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75!