Distributed for University College Dublin Press
Early Writings
The writings in this volume previously unpublished in English include the essay ’On Seeing in Nature’, his doctoral dissertation ’Idea and Individual’, a response to Karl Mannheim’s famous paper on cultural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.
Table of Contents
Norbert Elias - biographical note Note on the text Three-day excursion to the Riesengebirge (1914) On seeing in nature (1921) Idea and individual - A critical investigation of the concept of history (1924) Idea and individual - A contribution to the philosophy of history (1924) Anecdotes (1924) Contribution to the debate on Karl Mannheim - The importance of competition in the intellectual field (1929) On primitive art (1929) The sociology of German anti-Semitism (1929) The kitsch style and the age of kitsch (1935). The expulsion of the Huguenots from France (1935) Appendix - The emergence of the modern natural sciences (c. 1925-6) Bibliography Index.