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As eighteenth-century scholarship expands its range, and disciplinary boundaries such as Enlightenment and Romanticism are challenged, novels published during the rich period from 1750 to 1832 have become a contested site of critical overlap. In this volume, scholars who typically write under the rubric of either the long eighteenth century or Romanticism examine novels often claimed by both scholarly periods. This shared enterprise opens new and rich discussions of novels and novelistic concerns by creating dialogue across scholarly boundaries. Dominant narratives, critical approaches, and methodological assumptions differ in important ways, but these differences reveal a productive tension. Among the issues engaged are the eighteenth-century novel's development of emotional interiority, including theories of melancholia; the troubling heritage of the epistolary novel for the 1790s radical novel; tensions between rationality and romantic affect; issues of aesthetics and politics; and constructions of gender, genre, and race. Rather than positing a simple opposition between an eighteenth-century Enlightenment of rationality, propriety, and progress and a Romantic Period of inspiration, heroic individualism, and sublime emotionality, these essays trace the putatively 'Romantic' in the early 1700s as well as the long legacy of 'Enlightenment' values and ideas well into the nineteenth century. The volume concludes with responses from Patricia Meyer Spacks and Stephen C. Behrendt, who situate the essays and elaborate on the stakes.
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Enlightening Romanticism, Romancing the Enlightenment
This collection is dedicated to my mother, Nancy Sidle Brett, who has always believed in the “advantages of education.”
Enlightening Romanticism, Romancing the Enlightenment British Novels from 1750 to 1832
Miriam L. Wallace New College of Florida, USA
© Miriam L. Wallace 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Miriam L. Wallace has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Enlightening Romanticism, romancing the Enlightenment : British novels from 1750 to 1832 1. English fiction – 18th century – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Romanticism – Great Britain 4. Literature and society – Great Britain – History – 18th century 5. Literature and society – Great Britain – History – 19th century 6. Enlightenment – Great Britain I. Wallace, Miriam L. 823.6’09 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Enlightening romanticism, romancing the enlightenment : British novels from 1750 to 1832 / edited by Miriam L. Wallace. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-7546-6243-3 (alk. paper) 1. English fiction—18th century—History and criticism. 2. Romanticism—Great Britain. 3. English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 4. Enlightenment—Great Britain. 5. Literature and society—Great Britain—History—18th century. 6. Literature and society—Great Britain—History—19th century. 7. Great Britain—Intellectual life—18th century. 8. Great Britain—Intellectual life—19th century. I. Wallace, Miriam L. PR853.E55 2009 823’.509—dc22 ISBN: 978-0-7546-6243-3 (HBk) EISBN: 978-0-7546-9464-9 (EBk.V)
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Contents Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements
vii x
Introduction: Enlightened Roman