Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Politics, 1680–1750

Christoph Henke

Published by De Gruyter 2014

Common Sense in Early 18th-Century British Literature and Culture

Ethics, Aesthetics, and Politics, 1680–1750

Christoph Henke

Volume 46 in the series Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110343403

Overview
Contents

About this book

While the popular talk of English common sense in the eighteenth century might seem a by-product of familiar Enlightenment discourses of rationalism and empiricism, this book argues that terms such as ‘common sense’ or ‘good sense’ are not simply synonyms of applied reason. On the contrary, the discourse of common sense is shaped by a defensive impulse against the totalizing intellectual regimes of the Enlightenment and the cultural climate of change they promote, in order to contain the unbounded discursive proliferation of modern learning. Hence, common sense discourse has a vital regulatory function in cultural negotiations of political and intellectual change in eighteenth-century Britain against the backdrop of patriotic national self-concepts. This study discusses early eighteenth-century common sense in four broad complexes, as to its discursive functions that are ethical (which at that time implies aesthetic as well), transgressive (as a corrective), political (in patriotic constructs of the nation), and repressive (of otherness). The selection of texts in this study strikes a balance between dominant literary culture – Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, Johnson – and the periphery, such as pamphlets and magazine essays, satiric poems and patriotic songs.

Author / Editor information

Christoph Henke, University of Augsburg, Germany.

Supplementary Materials

Henke_Contents

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. The Discourse of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Ethics of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
3. The Transgressions of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
4. The Politics of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
5. The Other of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
6. The Afterlife of Common Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Author and Title Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	304
Subject Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Pages
- Front matter: 12
- Main content: 314
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 5
Keywords: Common sense; English literature; eighteenth-century literature; eighteenth-century culture

eBook

Published: October 14, 2014
ISBN: 9783110343403

Hardcover

Published: September 15, 2014
ISBN: 9783110343359