Sarah M. S. Pearsall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199532995
- eISBN:
- 9780191714443
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199532995.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This concluding chapter briefly surveys the central themes and arguments of the book. It also revises notions of ‘self-fashioning’ and the alleged emergence of the modern self in the 18th century. ...
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This concluding chapter briefly surveys the central themes and arguments of the book. It also revises notions of ‘self-fashioning’ and the alleged emergence of the modern self in the 18th century. ‘Self-fashioning’ worked in tandem with fashioning others, in ways both strategic and internalized. Understanding the nebulous origins of the modern self requires first understanding what had to be stripped away, at least partially, to make room for that self: chief among these attenuated entities was the family. The rise of independent selfhood generated a host of anxieties about social connections of all sorts. Many used letters to remain attached and to alleviate the painful uncertainties they faced. The conclusion also calls for greater attention to the family in this period.Less
This concluding chapter briefly surveys the central themes and arguments of the book. It also revises notions of ‘self-fashioning’ and the alleged emergence of the modern self in the 18th century. ‘Self-fashioning’ worked in tandem with fashioning others, in ways both strategic and internalized. Understanding the nebulous origins of the modern self requires first understanding what had to be stripped away, at least partially, to make room for that self: chief among these attenuated entities was the family. The rise of independent selfhood generated a host of anxieties about social connections of all sorts. Many used letters to remain attached and to alleviate the painful uncertainties they faced. The conclusion also calls for greater attention to the family in this period.
Nigel Leask
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572618
- eISBN:
- 9780191722974
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572618.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 18th-century Literature
This book is a reassessment of the writings of Robert Burns (1759–96), arguably the most original poet writing in Great Britain between Pope and Blake, and creator of the first modern vernacular ...
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This book is a reassessment of the writings of Robert Burns (1759–96), arguably the most original poet writing in Great Britain between Pope and Blake, and creator of the first modern vernacular style in British poetry. Although still celebrated as Scotland's national poet, Burns has long been marginalised in English literary studies worldwide, due to a mistaken view that his poetry is linguistically incomprehensible and of interest to Scottish readers only. This book challenges this view by interpreting Burns's poetry as an innovative and critical engagement with the experience of rural modernity, namely to the revolutionary transformation of Scottish agriculture and society in the decades between 1760 and 1800, thereby resituating it within the mainstream of the Scottish and European enlightenments. Detailed study of the literary, social, and historical contexts of Burns's poetry explodes the myth of the ‘Heaven-taught ploughman’, revealing his poetic artfulness and critical acumen as a social observer, as well as his significance as a Romantic precursor. The book discusses Burns's radical decision to write ‘Scots pastoral’ (rather than English georgic) poetry in the tradition of Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, focusing on themes of Scottish and British identity, agricultural improvement, poetic self-fashioning, language, politics, religion, patronage, poverty, antiquarianism, and the animal world. The book offers interpretations of all Burns's major poems and some of the songs, the first to do so since Thomas Crawford's landmark study of 1960. It concludes with a new assessment of his importance for British Romanticism and to a ‘Four Nations’ understanding of Scottish literature and culture.Less
This book is a reassessment of the writings of Robert Burns (1759–96), arguably the most original poet writing in Great Britain between Pope and Blake, and creator of the first modern vernacular style in British poetry. Although still celebrated as Scotland's national poet, Burns has long been marginalised in English literary studies worldwide, due to a mistaken view that his poetry is linguistically incomprehensible and of interest to Scottish readers only. This book challenges this view by interpreting Burns's poetry as an innovative and critical engagement with the experience of rural modernity, namely to the revolutionary transformation of Scottish agriculture and society in the decades between 1760 and 1800, thereby resituating it within the mainstream of the Scottish and European enlightenments. Detailed study of the literary, social, and historical contexts of Burns's poetry explodes the myth of the ‘Heaven-taught ploughman’, revealing his poetic artfulness and critical acumen as a social observer, as well as his significance as a Romantic precursor. The book discusses Burns's radical decision to write ‘Scots pastoral’ (rather than English georgic) poetry in the tradition of Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, focusing on themes of Scottish and British identity, agricultural improvement, poetic self-fashioning, language, politics, religion, patronage, poverty, antiquarianism, and the animal world. The book offers interpretations of all Burns's major poems and some of the songs, the first to do so since Thomas Crawford's landmark study of 1960. It concludes with a new assessment of his importance for British Romanticism and to a ‘Four Nations’ understanding of Scottish literature and culture.
Christian Laes
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199582570
- eISBN:
- 9780191595271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582570.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The chapter is a socio-cultural study on Roman pet children, based on a minute analysis of Statius' poetry. It shows how Roman owners of delicia coped with the low social status of these pet ...
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The chapter is a socio-cultural study on Roman pet children, based on a minute analysis of Statius' poetry. It shows how Roman owners of delicia coped with the low social status of these pet children, and how they tried to mask this status. Further, attention is paid to the physical and emotional depiction of these children, as well as to how they served the self-fashioning of their patrons or the poet. Finally, the question is asked whether it is possible to (re)write history from the side of these pet children themselves.Less
The chapter is a socio-cultural study on Roman pet children, based on a minute analysis of Statius' poetry. It shows how Roman owners of delicia coped with the low social status of these pet children, and how they tried to mask this status. Further, attention is paid to the physical and emotional depiction of these children, as well as to how they served the self-fashioning of their patrons or the poet. Finally, the question is asked whether it is possible to (re)write history from the side of these pet children themselves.
Joshua Landy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195169393
- eISBN:
- 9780199787845
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169393.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This book outlines and elucidates the philosophy of Marcel Proust, arguing that it is coherent, compelling, and original. At the same time, it explains why Proust chose to embed this philosophy ...
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This book outlines and elucidates the philosophy of Marcel Proust, arguing that it is coherent, compelling, and original. At the same time, it explains why Proust chose to embed this philosophy within a work of fiction, rather than presenting it in treatise form. The reason, it argues, is that the novel form allows Proust to offer implicit examples, both reinforcing and filling in the theory, often in highly subtle ways; to demand, in addition, specific types of careful attention from the reader, turning the engagement with his words into an experience of value in itself; and to place, finally, an ironic distance between himself and his narrator. Thanks to the active stance into which she is thereby forced, the reader stands to garner not only knowledge about various theoretical issues but also training of her intellectual faculties; not only new ways of thinking, but also new ways of living. Thus, surprising as it may sound, the narrator serves Proust's philosophical project not only when he puts forth convincing views and arguments but also when he makes mistakes. Following an introduction that discusses the major features of Proust's philosophical system and the ways in which they animate In Search of Lost Time, the book explores the perspectival nature of knowledge; the necessity of self-deception; the complex process of creating a stable self through narrative and stylization; and the ways in which the novel's style both supports and enacts its theoretical positions (including the ones officially denied by its narrator). By showing what, exactly, can be gained by combining theory with fiction, the book offers a new orientation for the study of Proust's novel and, more generally, of the intersection between literature and philosophy.Less
This book outlines and elucidates the philosophy of Marcel Proust, arguing that it is coherent, compelling, and original. At the same time, it explains why Proust chose to embed this philosophy within a work of fiction, rather than presenting it in treatise form. The reason, it argues, is that the novel form allows Proust to offer implicit examples, both reinforcing and filling in the theory, often in highly subtle ways; to demand, in addition, specific types of careful attention from the reader, turning the engagement with his words into an experience of value in itself; and to place, finally, an ironic distance between himself and his narrator. Thanks to the active stance into which she is thereby forced, the reader stands to garner not only knowledge about various theoretical issues but also training of her intellectual faculties; not only new ways of thinking, but also new ways of living. Thus, surprising as it may sound, the narrator serves Proust's philosophical project not only when he puts forth convincing views and arguments but also when he makes mistakes. Following an introduction that discusses the major features of Proust's philosophical system and the ways in which they animate In Search of Lost Time, the book explores the perspectival nature of knowledge; the necessity of self-deception; the complex process of creating a stable self through narrative and stylization; and the ways in which the novel's style both supports and enacts its theoretical positions (including the ones officially denied by its narrator). By showing what, exactly, can be gained by combining theory with fiction, the book offers a new orientation for the study of Proust's novel and, more generally, of the intersection between literature and philosophy.
Joshua Landy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195169393
- eISBN:
- 9780199787845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169393.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter discusses Proust's theory of selfhood. It argues that throughout the novel, Proust's protagonist struggles with the problem of finding or constructing a self that is both unique and ...
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This chapter discusses Proust's theory of selfhood. It argues that throughout the novel, Proust's protagonist struggles with the problem of finding or constructing a self that is both unique and enduring, in the face not only of change across time but also of serious division at any given moment, as the various faculties vie for control. Involuntary memory offers a partial solution, by revealing the existence within us of an aspect that is both individuating and stable — namely, the very perspective discussed in Chapter 1. Our perspective, however, is far from exhausting what we think of as our identity, since the numerous temporal selves, which never really disappear altogether from our psychic apparatus, also constitute an important part of who we are. The second suggestion, then, would be to gather these temporal selves together into a narrative. This narrative would require a certain amount of self-deception (ideally lucid): while it would need to be considered definitive in order to be of use, it would in reality, always be provisional, governed by a telos that is in principle unknown to us and therefore continually reimagined. Or, more consequently perhaps, we may dispense with actual narrative and instead simply live our lives as though they were works of literature. Stylizing our physical appearance is one possibility, but a more promising one involves the stylization of our very existence: imagining a future self and proceeding as if every aspect of our lives were directed toward this goal, asking not who we are but who we will have been, living life, in short, in the future perfect.Less
This chapter discusses Proust's theory of selfhood. It argues that throughout the novel, Proust's protagonist struggles with the problem of finding or constructing a self that is both unique and enduring, in the face not only of change across time but also of serious division at any given moment, as the various faculties vie for control. Involuntary memory offers a partial solution, by revealing the existence within us of an aspect that is both individuating and stable — namely, the very perspective discussed in Chapter 1. Our perspective, however, is far from exhausting what we think of as our identity, since the numerous temporal selves, which never really disappear altogether from our psychic apparatus, also constitute an important part of who we are. The second suggestion, then, would be to gather these temporal selves together into a narrative. This narrative would require a certain amount of self-deception (ideally lucid): while it would need to be considered definitive in order to be of use, it would in reality, always be provisional, governed by a telos that is in principle unknown to us and therefore continually reimagined. Or, more consequently perhaps, we may dispense with actual narrative and instead simply live our lives as though they were works of literature. Stylizing our physical appearance is one possibility, but a more promising one involves the stylization of our very existence: imagining a future self and proceeding as if every aspect of our lives were directed toward this goal, asking not who we are but who we will have been, living life, in short, in the future perfect.
Joshua Landy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195169393
- eISBN:
- 9780199787845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169393.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter examines the connections between Proust's philosophy, and his and his narrator's literary style. On the one hand, a set of stylistic features correspond neatly to the theory of self ...
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This chapter examines the connections between Proust's philosophy, and his and his narrator's literary style. On the one hand, a set of stylistic features correspond neatly to the theory of self described in Chapter 3: the inconsistencies of the novel's chronology mirror the imperfections of memory; the shifts in tone translate the self's constant fluctuations; the multiple narratorial voices reproduce the disjointed nature of consciousness; and the syntax of the famously convoluted and multilayered sentences — which often seem to grow from the middle, constantly allowing for revision and reconsideration — imitates the process by which we attempt to shape the total self. On the other hand, and more importantly, Proust's style does something else: by encouraging us to hold a great deal of information in our head at once, to retrace our steps, and to doubt what we simultaneously believe, it offers the opportunity for a kind of training that may ultimately allow us to construct our own total selves, transforming our disorderly lives into works of art.Less
This chapter examines the connections between Proust's philosophy, and his and his narrator's literary style. On the one hand, a set of stylistic features correspond neatly to the theory of self described in Chapter 3: the inconsistencies of the novel's chronology mirror the imperfections of memory; the shifts in tone translate the self's constant fluctuations; the multiple narratorial voices reproduce the disjointed nature of consciousness; and the syntax of the famously convoluted and multilayered sentences — which often seem to grow from the middle, constantly allowing for revision and reconsideration — imitates the process by which we attempt to shape the total self. On the other hand, and more importantly, Proust's style does something else: by encouraging us to hold a great deal of information in our head at once, to retrace our steps, and to doubt what we simultaneously believe, it offers the opportunity for a kind of training that may ultimately allow us to construct our own total selves, transforming our disorderly lives into works of art.
Andrew Hopper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199575855
- eISBN:
- 9780191744617
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575855.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Military History
Rather than appear as cynical opportunists, many elite side‐changers sought to ‘spin’ their past actions to support a self‐image of constancy, reliability, and untarnished honour. This chapter ...
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Rather than appear as cynical opportunists, many elite side‐changers sought to ‘spin’ their past actions to support a self‐image of constancy, reliability, and untarnished honour. This chapter explores the ways they sought to explain their actions, whether through printing self‐justificatory narratives or by penning their memoirs for posterity. Their self‐fashioning is especially illuminating for contemporary cultural attitudes to side‐changing, both in what they claim and what they leave unsaid. The chapter concludes that those individuals with an aggressive sense of honour and heightened sensitivity to perceived slights were most prone to changing sides. Yet not all side‐changers were scorned. Those able to persuade themselves and a sufficient number of others that they changed sides from conscience might retain their own sense of honour and public reputation, despite the bitter condemnations by those they had deserted.Less
Rather than appear as cynical opportunists, many elite side‐changers sought to ‘spin’ their past actions to support a self‐image of constancy, reliability, and untarnished honour. This chapter explores the ways they sought to explain their actions, whether through printing self‐justificatory narratives or by penning their memoirs for posterity. Their self‐fashioning is especially illuminating for contemporary cultural attitudes to side‐changing, both in what they claim and what they leave unsaid. The chapter concludes that those individuals with an aggressive sense of honour and heightened sensitivity to perceived slights were most prone to changing sides. Yet not all side‐changers were scorned. Those able to persuade themselves and a sufficient number of others that they changed sides from conscience might retain their own sense of honour and public reputation, despite the bitter condemnations by those they had deserted.
Beatrice Groves
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199208982
- eISBN:
- 9780191706158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208982.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter focuses on 1 Henry IV, contextualizing it within the religious iconography employed by the eponymous kings of Richard II and Henry V. It argues for the Incarnational nuance of Hal's ...
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This chapter focuses on 1 Henry IV, contextualizing it within the religious iconography employed by the eponymous kings of Richard II and Henry V. It argues for the Incarnational nuance of Hal's self-fashioning as a Cheapside rogue turned royal prince. Hal stages his own redemption in Christian terms: a Lenten period of expectant, self-imposed exile is followed by a reconciliation between father and son through a decisive single combat with a rebellious enemy. The dramatic form of the liturgy, the biblical story, and the mystery plays have been appropriated by Hal to invest his own history with its power.Less
This chapter focuses on 1 Henry IV, contextualizing it within the religious iconography employed by the eponymous kings of Richard II and Henry V. It argues for the Incarnational nuance of Hal's self-fashioning as a Cheapside rogue turned royal prince. Hal stages his own redemption in Christian terms: a Lenten period of expectant, self-imposed exile is followed by a reconciliation between father and son through a decisive single combat with a rebellious enemy. The dramatic form of the liturgy, the biblical story, and the mystery plays have been appropriated by Hal to invest his own history with its power.
Jan Golinski
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226351360
- eISBN:
- 9780226368849
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226368849.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book is a biographical study of the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). It considers Davy’s career as a process of experimental self-fashioning, in which his adaptation to the ...
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This book is a biographical study of the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). It considers Davy’s career as a process of experimental self-fashioning, in which his adaptation to the prevailing social circumstances was accompanied by literary and scientific inquiry into his own subjectivity. Davy’s early life led from experiments on breathing gases (including nitrous oxide) to fame as a public scientific lecturer at the Royal Institution in London. He gained renown as the discoverer of several chemical elements, applied his knowledge to such practical problems as the design of a safety lamp for miners, and rose to prominence in the London scientific and social world. As he made his way in Regency society, Davy molded and adopted a series of personae or public characters. Six of these personae are discussed in the book, each one forming the focus of one chapter. Readers will follow Davy’s course from his youthful enthusiasm for physiological experimentation to his late-life manifestation as a melancholic traveler on the European continent. Along the way, they will gain an appreciation for the creativity Davy invested in his self-fashioning as a man of science, and the obstacles he overcame, in a period when the path to a scientific career was not as well-trodden as it is today.Less
This book is a biographical study of the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). It considers Davy’s career as a process of experimental self-fashioning, in which his adaptation to the prevailing social circumstances was accompanied by literary and scientific inquiry into his own subjectivity. Davy’s early life led from experiments on breathing gases (including nitrous oxide) to fame as a public scientific lecturer at the Royal Institution in London. He gained renown as the discoverer of several chemical elements, applied his knowledge to such practical problems as the design of a safety lamp for miners, and rose to prominence in the London scientific and social world. As he made his way in Regency society, Davy molded and adopted a series of personae or public characters. Six of these personae are discussed in the book, each one forming the focus of one chapter. Readers will follow Davy’s course from his youthful enthusiasm for physiological experimentation to his late-life manifestation as a melancholic traveler on the European continent. Along the way, they will gain an appreciation for the creativity Davy invested in his self-fashioning as a man of science, and the obstacles he overcame, in a period when the path to a scientific career was not as well-trodden as it is today.
Cathy Shrank
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199268887
- eISBN:
- 9780191708473
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268887.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter explores the influence of Italian learning and culture on William Thomas, author of the first English history of Italy and first English-Italian grammar, and an early enthusiast for ...
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This chapter explores the influence of Italian learning and culture on William Thomas, author of the first English history of Italy and first English-Italian grammar, and an early enthusiast for Machiavelli, whose ideas he disseminated in manuscript to Edward VI. The chapter examines Thomas's portrayal in his topographical and historical writings of the affinities between England and Italy, and his use of Italy as both an inspiration and a foil. It traces the impact of a self-conscious movement to reform and promote the Italian vernacular on Thomas's championing of the English language. It also looks at Thomas's Protestantism, his adaptation of Machiavellian thought to English statecraft, the influence of Italian printed books on the presentation of Thomas's works (published by Thomas Berthelet), and Thomas's self-fashioning through his writing.Less
This chapter explores the influence of Italian learning and culture on William Thomas, author of the first English history of Italy and first English-Italian grammar, and an early enthusiast for Machiavelli, whose ideas he disseminated in manuscript to Edward VI. The chapter examines Thomas's portrayal in his topographical and historical writings of the affinities between England and Italy, and his use of Italy as both an inspiration and a foil. It traces the impact of a self-conscious movement to reform and promote the Italian vernacular on Thomas's championing of the English language. It also looks at Thomas's Protestantism, his adaptation of Machiavellian thought to English statecraft, the influence of Italian printed books on the presentation of Thomas's works (published by Thomas Berthelet), and Thomas's self-fashioning through his writing.
Jessica Barr
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719089701
- eISBN:
- 9781526104243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089701.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
In late medieval mystical writings, the narrative subject self-consciously fashions him- or herself, notably in the writings of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Richard Rolle. The authority in ...
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In late medieval mystical writings, the narrative subject self-consciously fashions him- or herself, notably in the writings of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Richard Rolle. The authority in which the mystics’ experience is grounded is intimately connected with sanctity: the narrative personae employs individual experience to establish his or her sanctity through the employment of a range of strategies, which are meant to provide a model for the readers and enable affective responses. The three authors fashion their ‘I’ in different ways, from Rolle’s powerful visual images that reflect an open first-person speaker to Margery’s highly particularised persona that invites the audience’s participation to a limited degree only.Less
In late medieval mystical writings, the narrative subject self-consciously fashions him- or herself, notably in the writings of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Richard Rolle. The authority in which the mystics’ experience is grounded is intimately connected with sanctity: the narrative personae employs individual experience to establish his or her sanctity through the employment of a range of strategies, which are meant to provide a model for the readers and enable affective responses. The three authors fashion their ‘I’ in different ways, from Rolle’s powerful visual images that reflect an open first-person speaker to Margery’s highly particularised persona that invites the audience’s participation to a limited degree only.
R. Lanier Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199583676
- eISBN:
- 9780191745294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583676.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The nature of the self is contested within Nietzsche scholarship. Many texts suggest skeptical eliminativism or reduction of the self to sub-personal drives. But core Nietzschean doctrines ...
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The nature of the self is contested within Nietzsche scholarship. Many texts suggest skeptical eliminativism or reduction of the self to sub-personal drives. But core Nietzschean doctrines (self-overcoming, perspectivist objectivity) seem to require substantial self-management, and Kantians insist that only a separate, transcendental self could play this role. This chapter resists both naturalistic reductionism and transcendentalism. Through analysis of the nature of drives and affects, and then of their interactions, it shows how the Nietzschean self emerges as a numerically distinct psychological object, over and above its constituent drives and affects. But this minimal self lacks the strong features of a transcendental ‘I’; it is complex, not simple, and its boundaries do not coincide with those of consciousness. Nevertheless, the resulting conception of the self affords an adequate basis for understanding Nietzsche's valuation of autonomy (self-governance).Less
The nature of the self is contested within Nietzsche scholarship. Many texts suggest skeptical eliminativism or reduction of the self to sub-personal drives. But core Nietzschean doctrines (self-overcoming, perspectivist objectivity) seem to require substantial self-management, and Kantians insist that only a separate, transcendental self could play this role. This chapter resists both naturalistic reductionism and transcendentalism. Through analysis of the nature of drives and affects, and then of their interactions, it shows how the Nietzschean self emerges as a numerically distinct psychological object, over and above its constituent drives and affects. But this minimal self lacks the strong features of a transcendental ‘I’; it is complex, not simple, and its boundaries do not coincide with those of consciousness. Nevertheless, the resulting conception of the self affords an adequate basis for understanding Nietzsche's valuation of autonomy (self-governance).
Meghan K. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226384115
- eISBN:
- 9780226384252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226384252.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The eighteenth century was not an austere age of reason but rather a time when reason and emotion, science and sensibility, public and private, went neatly hand in hand. This book examines how the ...
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The eighteenth century was not an austere age of reason but rather a time when reason and emotion, science and sensibility, public and private, went neatly hand in hand. This book examines how the thinkers of the age attempted to live the Enlightenment. It is a story that starts at home. Eager to establish themselves as individuals of virtue and sentiment, philosophers flaunted their seemingly idyllic family lives. Rather than shuttering themselves in their studies, the sentimental savants of Enlightenment France claimed to live in and for society. They imagined themselves to be a new sort of public figure: learned men and women whose happy home lives enabled, rather than constrained, their intellectual work. They used their family homes to develop new ideas, new social theories, and new cultural practices. Their loving marriages testified to their sensitivity and sociability; their domestic experiences provided a strong empirical foundation on which to build their claims about science, medicine, and philosophy; their wives and children contributed to the household production of knowledge. Thinkers shone a spotlight on their domestic lives in an effort to further the cause of Enlightenment. By drawing attention to the virtues of private life and by practicing an intimate brand of empiricism, they opened up debates about the relevance of personal virtue to public authority and intellectual acumen.Less
The eighteenth century was not an austere age of reason but rather a time when reason and emotion, science and sensibility, public and private, went neatly hand in hand. This book examines how the thinkers of the age attempted to live the Enlightenment. It is a story that starts at home. Eager to establish themselves as individuals of virtue and sentiment, philosophers flaunted their seemingly idyllic family lives. Rather than shuttering themselves in their studies, the sentimental savants of Enlightenment France claimed to live in and for society. They imagined themselves to be a new sort of public figure: learned men and women whose happy home lives enabled, rather than constrained, their intellectual work. They used their family homes to develop new ideas, new social theories, and new cultural practices. Their loving marriages testified to their sensitivity and sociability; their domestic experiences provided a strong empirical foundation on which to build their claims about science, medicine, and philosophy; their wives and children contributed to the household production of knowledge. Thinkers shone a spotlight on their domestic lives in an effort to further the cause of Enlightenment. By drawing attention to the virtues of private life and by practicing an intimate brand of empiricism, they opened up debates about the relevance of personal virtue to public authority and intellectual acumen.
Meghan K. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226384115
- eISBN:
- 9780226384252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226384252.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book has argued that Enlightenment savants flaunted their seemingly idyllic family lives as a way to model themselves as virtuous public figures. Rather than shuttering themselves in their ...
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This book has argued that Enlightenment savants flaunted their seemingly idyllic family lives as a way to model themselves as virtuous public figures. Rather than shuttering themselves in their studies, the sentimental savants of Enlightenment France claimed to live in and for society. Their happy home lives enabled, rather than constrained, their intellectual work. They used their family homes to develop new ideas, new social theories, and new cultural practices. Thinkers shone a spotlight on their domestic lives in an effort to further the cause of Enlightenment.Less
This book has argued that Enlightenment savants flaunted their seemingly idyllic family lives as a way to model themselves as virtuous public figures. Rather than shuttering themselves in their studies, the sentimental savants of Enlightenment France claimed to live in and for society. Their happy home lives enabled, rather than constrained, their intellectual work. They used their family homes to develop new ideas, new social theories, and new cultural practices. Thinkers shone a spotlight on their domestic lives in an effort to further the cause of Enlightenment.
Matthew Woodcock
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199684304
- eISBN:
- 9780191764974
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684304.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This book is a biography of the soldier, courtier, author, entertainer, and amateur spy, Thomas Churchyard (c.1529–1604). It traces Churchyard’s life from his first appearances at the court of Henry ...
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This book is a biography of the soldier, courtier, author, entertainer, and amateur spy, Thomas Churchyard (c.1529–1604). It traces Churchyard’s life from his first appearances at the court of Henry VIII and employment with Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, and examines his subsequent career as an active, professional soldier whose extensive service in Ireland, Scotland, France, and the Low Countries eventually earned him both respect and remuneration from Queen Elizabeth I and her statesmen. It also examines Churchyard’s literary career, spanning over half a century, during which time he produced over fifty works in a variety of forms and genres. Drawing on extensive archival and literary sources, the book reconstructs the life of a figure well known yet long neglected in early modern studies, a resourceful and innovative writer whose long literary career plays an important part in the history of professional authorship in sixteenth-century England. It examines Churchyard’s significant contributions to literary forms and activities including courtly entertainments, the female-voiced complaint, country-house poetry, the essay, elegies, journalistic reportage, and poetic gift-giving. This book also situates Churchyard alongside contemporary soldier-authors such as the Earl of Surrey, George Gascoigne, and Sir Philip Sidney, and explores relationships between literature and the military in the early modern period.Less
This book is a biography of the soldier, courtier, author, entertainer, and amateur spy, Thomas Churchyard (c.1529–1604). It traces Churchyard’s life from his first appearances at the court of Henry VIII and employment with Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, and examines his subsequent career as an active, professional soldier whose extensive service in Ireland, Scotland, France, and the Low Countries eventually earned him both respect and remuneration from Queen Elizabeth I and her statesmen. It also examines Churchyard’s literary career, spanning over half a century, during which time he produced over fifty works in a variety of forms and genres. Drawing on extensive archival and literary sources, the book reconstructs the life of a figure well known yet long neglected in early modern studies, a resourceful and innovative writer whose long literary career plays an important part in the history of professional authorship in sixteenth-century England. It examines Churchyard’s significant contributions to literary forms and activities including courtly entertainments, the female-voiced complaint, country-house poetry, the essay, elegies, journalistic reportage, and poetic gift-giving. This book also situates Churchyard alongside contemporary soldier-authors such as the Earl of Surrey, George Gascoigne, and Sir Philip Sidney, and explores relationships between literature and the military in the early modern period.
Jan Machielsen
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265802
- eISBN:
- 9780191772009
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265802.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter throws light on Martin Delrio’s ambitions as a young humanist by comparing his first edition of Senecan tragedy (1576), allegedly composed before his twentieth birthday, with his later ...
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This chapter throws light on Martin Delrio’s ambitions as a young humanist by comparing his first edition of Senecan tragedy (1576), allegedly composed before his twentieth birthday, with his later Syntagma tragoediae latinae. The comparison highlights aspirations, some unrealized, others inappropriate, and reveals opinions that Delrio, as a Jesuit, later chose to suppress. Young Martin’s less than successful attempt at forging a reputation gives us a glimpse of a humanist youth culture riven by petty rivalries and one-upmanship.Less
This chapter throws light on Martin Delrio’s ambitions as a young humanist by comparing his first edition of Senecan tragedy (1576), allegedly composed before his twentieth birthday, with his later Syntagma tragoediae latinae. The comparison highlights aspirations, some unrealized, others inappropriate, and reveals opinions that Delrio, as a Jesuit, later chose to suppress. Young Martin’s less than successful attempt at forging a reputation gives us a glimpse of a humanist youth culture riven by petty rivalries and one-upmanship.
Jessica Goodman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198796626
- eISBN:
- 9780191837913
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198796626.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 18th-century Literature
The thirty years Carlo Goldoni spent in Paris hold an ambiguous place in his career. The preface to his autobiography explicitly draws attention to France as the site of his authorial glory, but ...
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The thirty years Carlo Goldoni spent in Paris hold an ambiguous place in his career. The preface to his autobiography explicitly draws attention to France as the site of his authorial glory, but elsewhere he dismisses his work for the Parisian Comédie-Italienne as a failure, and this view has come to dominate modern readings of his French experience. This study sets out to explore this apparent contradiction. By reading Goldoni’s own contemporary and subsequent accounts through the lens of his context as a dramatic author in 1760s Paris, this book sheds new light on both his experience and critical reactions to that experience. A key part of this contextualization is an examination of contemporary Comédie-Italienne archives, resulting in the most comprehensive existing account of this oft-neglected theatre and its authorial relations in the period. When material and artistic conditions at the Comédie-Italienne thwarted the self-fashioning strategies Goldoni had developed in Italy, he turned his attention to other areas of French life; notably the court and the Comédie-Française. Yet despite relative success in this regard, his career as an eclectic homme de lettres was lost in translation to posterity. In his French Mémoires, he constructed the claim of Parisian glory according to an outdated understanding of what it meant to succeed in the French literary field, focusing predominantly on the power of Comédie-Française success. Ultimately, this construction was a failure: in modern France, Goldoni is remembered as a famous foreigner, not the consecrated French littérateur he believed he had become.Less
The thirty years Carlo Goldoni spent in Paris hold an ambiguous place in his career. The preface to his autobiography explicitly draws attention to France as the site of his authorial glory, but elsewhere he dismisses his work for the Parisian Comédie-Italienne as a failure, and this view has come to dominate modern readings of his French experience. This study sets out to explore this apparent contradiction. By reading Goldoni’s own contemporary and subsequent accounts through the lens of his context as a dramatic author in 1760s Paris, this book sheds new light on both his experience and critical reactions to that experience. A key part of this contextualization is an examination of contemporary Comédie-Italienne archives, resulting in the most comprehensive existing account of this oft-neglected theatre and its authorial relations in the period. When material and artistic conditions at the Comédie-Italienne thwarted the self-fashioning strategies Goldoni had developed in Italy, he turned his attention to other areas of French life; notably the court and the Comédie-Française. Yet despite relative success in this regard, his career as an eclectic homme de lettres was lost in translation to posterity. In his French Mémoires, he constructed the claim of Parisian glory according to an outdated understanding of what it meant to succeed in the French literary field, focusing predominantly on the power of Comédie-Française success. Ultimately, this construction was a failure: in modern France, Goldoni is remembered as a famous foreigner, not the consecrated French littérateur he believed he had become.
Nadja Durbach
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257689
- eISBN:
- 9780520944893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257689.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
“The Last of the Mysterious Aztecs” were exhibited in London in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their publicity materials emphasized that they were the only remaining members of a once great ...
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“The Last of the Mysterious Aztecs” were exhibited in London in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their publicity materials emphasized that they were the only remaining members of a once great civilization that had over time become degenerate and thus died off. This chapter argues that “the Aztecs” were exceptionally popular in the 1850s—a crucial and triumphant moment in Britain's imperial self-fashioning—because they had helped to instruct the British public exactly how to imagine their place in the hierarchy of civilizations and empires. As the last specimens of a now-extinct nation, “the Aztecs” functioned as a warning of the decline and fall of even complex civilizations. At the height of Britain's industrial and imperial ascendancy, however, this performance also encouraged spectators to construct themselves as members of a historically unparalleled and uniquely advanced culture that would not only survive, but expand, progress, and inevitably dominate the globe.Less
“The Last of the Mysterious Aztecs” were exhibited in London in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their publicity materials emphasized that they were the only remaining members of a once great civilization that had over time become degenerate and thus died off. This chapter argues that “the Aztecs” were exceptionally popular in the 1850s—a crucial and triumphant moment in Britain's imperial self-fashioning—because they had helped to instruct the British public exactly how to imagine their place in the hierarchy of civilizations and empires. As the last specimens of a now-extinct nation, “the Aztecs” functioned as a warning of the decline and fall of even complex civilizations. At the height of Britain's industrial and imperial ascendancy, however, this performance also encouraged spectators to construct themselves as members of a historically unparalleled and uniquely advanced culture that would not only survive, but expand, progress, and inevitably dominate the globe.
James H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on Giacomo Casanova and his experiences with the Venetian carnival and with masks. His life was a lifelong masquerade. Born without noble origins, Casanova transformed his roots. ...
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This chapter focuses on Giacomo Casanova and his experiences with the Venetian carnival and with masks. His life was a lifelong masquerade. Born without noble origins, Casanova transformed his roots. He traveled under assumed names and changed his wardrobe to suit his serial selves. He donned masks to cover his true roots. While Casanova manipulated his life, he resigned his life’s authorship to fate. Casanova may have been the master of self-fashioning but his selves were successive and serial, made true despite the inconsistencies by his professed sincerity of intentions. Casanova believed that humans were powerless to direct the larger course. Near the end of his memoirs, Casanova wrote: “My will, far from declaring me free, was only an instrument which Fortune used to make what she would of me”.Less
This chapter focuses on Giacomo Casanova and his experiences with the Venetian carnival and with masks. His life was a lifelong masquerade. Born without noble origins, Casanova transformed his roots. He traveled under assumed names and changed his wardrobe to suit his serial selves. He donned masks to cover his true roots. While Casanova manipulated his life, he resigned his life’s authorship to fate. Casanova may have been the master of self-fashioning but his selves were successive and serial, made true despite the inconsistencies by his professed sincerity of intentions. Casanova believed that humans were powerless to direct the larger course. Near the end of his memoirs, Casanova wrote: “My will, far from declaring me free, was only an instrument which Fortune used to make what she would of me”.
Nina Levine and David Lee Miller
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230303
- eISBN:
- 9780823241071
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823230303.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
It is not easy to describe the register of Harry Berger's critical writing. The work is enthusiastic but plainspoken — the work of a “dry light;” it is deeply skeptical but never cynical, ...
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It is not easy to describe the register of Harry Berger's critical writing. The work is enthusiastic but plainspoken — the work of a “dry light;” it is deeply skeptical but never cynical, relentlessly ironic yet always with a sense of the charity of irony. The criticism is pragmatic in its local attentions to particular works, scenes, and characters, yet driven by preoccupations whose sources are often mysterious. Berger writes that he prefers the term “self-representation” to “self-fashioning” because for him the former speaks to the self's implication in images or voices that expose it to doubts and differences both outside and inside the self. Reading Berger's work, one feels a vigilance, a struggle to bear and decipher a mystery, which belongs to a particular agent or worker in the field.Less
It is not easy to describe the register of Harry Berger's critical writing. The work is enthusiastic but plainspoken — the work of a “dry light;” it is deeply skeptical but never cynical, relentlessly ironic yet always with a sense of the charity of irony. The criticism is pragmatic in its local attentions to particular works, scenes, and characters, yet driven by preoccupations whose sources are often mysterious. Berger writes that he prefers the term “self-representation” to “self-fashioning” because for him the former speaks to the self's implication in images or voices that expose it to doubts and differences both outside and inside the self. Reading Berger's work, one feels a vigilance, a struggle to bear and decipher a mystery, which belongs to a particular agent or worker in the field.
