Reading Ideas in Victorian Literature: Literary Content as Artistic Experience

Patrick Fessenbecker

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2020

Reading Ideas in Victorian Literature

Literary Content as Artistic Experience

Patrick Fessenbecker

In the series Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474460620

Overview
Contents

About this book

Argues against the repeated emphasis on literary form and for the artistic importance of literary content

Appeals to those interested in philosophy and literature, especially the philosophy of literature
Brings together thinkers from the analytic and continental traditions in aesthetics
Contains an updated and expanded version of the award-winning essay ‘In Defence of Paraphrase’
Makes a case for why Victorian literature and Victorian moral thought are worthy of attention
Offers new readings of George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, and Augusta Webster

It is natural to assume that if works of literature are artistically valuable, it’s not because of anything they say but because of what they are: beautiful. Works of art try to say nothing, to use their content only as matter for realizing the beauty of complex form.　 But what if appreciating the things a work of literature has to say is a way of appreciating it as a work of art? Often dismissed as too lengthy, messy, and preachy to qualify as genuine art, in fact Victorian narrative challenges our conceptions about what makes art worth engaging.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Series Editor’s Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: In Defence of Paraphrase Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Content and Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
2. Anthony Trollope on Akrasia, Self-Deception and Ethical Confusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
3. Justifying Anachronism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
4. The Scourge of the Unwilling: George Eliot on the Sources of Normativity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
5. Everyday Aesthetics and the Experience of the Profound Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
6. Robert Browning, Augusta Webster and the Role of Morality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Epilogue: Between Immersion and Critique – Thoughtful Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781474460620