Good Gossip
Robert F Goodman editor Aaron Ben-Ze'ev editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University Press of Kansas
Published:22nd Jul '94
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
As ubiquitous and influential as gossip is, it has been surprisingly downplayed as a topic of philosophical, psychological, and sociological investigation and debate. In this book, twenty-two scholars from several disciplines turn a professional eye to that much-maligned yet heavily practiced form of conversation. They consider gossip and humor, logic, morality, privacy, legal and medical issues, feminism, history, rumor, and reputation. Provocative and varied, their essays suggest that gossip has unexpected virtues and pave the way for future debate on this omnipresent pastime.
Gossip is inherently democratic, concerned with private life rather than public issues, 'idle,' in the sense that it is not instrumental or goal oriented. Yet it can serve to expand our consciousness of what life is about in ways that are effectively inaccessible to other modes of inquiry." —Ronald de Sousa from Good Gossip
"This topic is interesting and in need of serious study. The book is partially an attempt to exonerate gossip from its bad reputation by pointing to the various positive values it may promote. A worthy contribution to the study of gossip." —Irwin Goldstein, Davidson College
ISBN: 9780700606702
Dimensions: 216mm x 168mm x 16mm
Weight: 358g
224 pages