Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. Introduction 1
5. Part 1: Dimensions of the Symposium
6. 1. Conceptualizing the Symposium 11
7. 2. Power and Signs of Power in the Middle Ages 41
8. 3. Sociability and the Humanities 53
9. Part 2: Modernization and Social Gatherings
10. 4. The Splintering of Culture 79
11. 5. Proust and Nineteenth- Century Salons 96
12. 6. The Silence of Power 105
13. 7. A Symptomatology of Critical Shifts 116
14. Part 3: Sympotic Relics
15. 8. Securing Power and Auxiliary Evidence 157
16. 9. The Paradigm of Isolation and Its Consequences 182
17. 10. Beyond the Sympotic 200
18. 11. Consequences and Conclusion(s) 230
19. Notes 245
20. Bibliography 263
21. Index 277