Literary notes about EVASION (AI summary)
The term “evasion” has been wielded with remarkable versatility in literature, serving as a marker for both literal and metaphorical avoidance. Philosophers and critics use it to denote an escape from absolute constructs or the responsibilities of truth and duty—as seen when Nietzsche associates it with vitality and Emerson links it to courageous honesty ([1], [2]). In the realm of drama and character sketch, evasion often embodies a feeble deflection or even a subtle act of insolence, as demonstrated by Shaw’s portrayal of barren denial or Kipling’s depiction of audacious rebellion ([3], [4]). Moreover, it appears in narrative contexts to illustrate physical escape—from hunting dangers in Northup’s account ([5]) to the circumvention of societal rules in works by Twain and Verne ([6], [7])—while in psychoanalytic writings by Freud, it underlines the unconscious mechanisms that allow conflict to be sidestepped ([8], [9], [10]). Thus, across genres, “evasion” functions as a multifaceted device, reflecting both the limitations and the strategic maneuvers of individuals in confronting their challenges.
- Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - So, in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion or in flight, but in courage.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - You cannot accuse me of this pitiable barrenness, this feeble evasion.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - His evasion, of course, was the height of insolence, but it argued some resource and nerve.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - But the most remarkable instance of a successful evasion of dogs and hunters was the following: Among Carey's girls was one by the name of Celeste.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - Don’t stop now; don’t fool around here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set her loose!
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - The natives, adopting a system of denial and evasion, refused to guide them to the site of the casualty.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - Moreover, the evasion that these persons are merely rarities, curiosities, is easily refuted.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - You see, this evasion which the libido finds under the conditions of the conflict is possible only by virtue of the existing fixations.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Again I should like to deny the truth of the belief that the dream symbol originates in this evasion used for the benefit of children.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
