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2022

Politics

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Full-Text Articles in European Languages and Societies

The Price We Pay For Envy: A Political And Social “Maladie”, Will Rogers Mar 2022

The Price We Pay For Envy: A Political And Social “Maladie”, Will Rogers

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"The Travelers and the Angel" is a curious exemplum: depicting envy as almost an emotion, it depicts the seemingly hopeless worsening of the world, as the envious care more for others' pain than their own happiness. While the exemplum's moral is undoubtedly true, even for 21st century readers, we might address how Gower's particular framing of envy doesn't account for envy's potential to drive positive change.