Literary notes about Alienation (AI summary)
Writers have long exploited the word alienation to capture a diverse range of separations and detachments—be they legal, social, psychological, or spiritual. In some texts, alienation denotes the literal severance of property or hereditary ties, as when ownership is seen as inherently carrying a power to alienate ([1], [2]), or when a monarch’s act separates the people from a ruling house ([3]). In other works, the term vividly describes internal or interpersonal estrangement, whether it is the gradual distancing within a family relationship ([4]) or the unsettling loss of mental equilibrium marked by a temporary alienation of mind ([5]). The word also operates on a grander scale, suggesting profound schisms between nations or communities ([6], [7]). Thus, in literature, alienation becomes a multifaceted concept, simultaneously capturing tangible legal transactions and the ineffable experience of isolation and disaffection.
- It may be convenient now-a-days to say that ownership implies a power of alienation.
— from Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England by Frederic William Maitland - But, in a new colony, a great uncultivated estate is likely to be much more speedily divided by alienation than by succession.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Queen Margaret, indeed, completed the alienation of the people from the house of Lancaster.
— from Cassell's History of England, Vol. 2 (of 8) From the Wars of the Roses to the Great Rebellion by Anonymous - Martin’s alienation from his family continued.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - Ecstasy in this place, as in many others, means a temporary alienation of mind—a fit.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare - Immense geographical and social divisions between people usually produce a spirit of alienation, and, in many instances, of absolute hostility.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869 by Various - Thus the alienation of the Pauline Christians from Judaism was powerfully promoted by this event.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
