Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Culture of Conversation (Paperback)

Part I. Opening the Conversation: 1. The conversation of a culture: strange powers of speech; Part II. Holmes in the Conversation of his Culture: 2. 'To change the order of conversation'; 3. 'Collisions of discourse' I: the electrodynamics of conversation; 4. 'Collisions of discourse' II: electric and oceanic currents of conversation; 5. A conversational approach to truth: the doctor in dialogue with contemporary truth-sayers; 6. Conversation and 'therapeutic nihilism': the doctor in dialogue with contemporary medicine; 7. The self in conversation: the doctor in dialogue with contemporary psychology; Part III. The Two Poles of Conversation: 8. The bipolar dynamics of Holmes' household dialogues: levity and gravity; 9. Holmes' house divided: house-keeping and house-breaking; 10. 'Cutting off the communication': fixations and falls for the walled-in self: Holmes in dialogue with Sterne, Dickens, and Melville; 11. Breaking the house of romance: Holmes in dialogue with Hawthorne; Part IV. Closing the Conversation: 12. Conclusions: Holmes Senior in dialogue with Holmes Junior.