“Melancholic Joy: On Life Worth Living” draws from poetry, literature, film, and even nature, to provide an honest assessment of the human condition. It unflinchingly acknowledges the everyday frustrations and extraordinary horrors that generate despair and argues that the appropriate response is to take up joy again, not in an attempt to ignore or dismiss evil, but rather as part of a “melancholic joy” that accepts the mystery of a world both beautiful and brutal.
Professor Brian Treanor, a member of the philosophy faculty at Loyola Marymount University for 18 years, has a broad range of teaching and research interests including identity, otherness, nature, wilderness, toleration, forgiveness, hope, virtue, flourishing, God, prayer, place, narrative, embodiment, politics, hospitality, faith, love, and simplicity.