The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 4, The Eighteenth Century

This comprehensive 1997 account of eighteenth-century literary criticism is now available in paperback.

H. B. Nisbet (Edited by), Claude Rawson (Edited by)

9780521300094, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 November 1997

970 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 5.8 cm, 1.5 kg

'Erudite in makeup and cosmopolitan in sweep, the volume demonstrates the best continuity with the history it narrates.' Modern Philology

This is a comprehensive 1997 account of the history of literary criticism in Britain and Europe between 1660 and 1800. Unlike previous histories, it is not just a chronological survey of critical writing, but a multidisciplinary investigation of how the understanding of literature and its various genres was transformed, at the start of the modern era, by developments in philosophy, psychology, the natural sciences, linguistics, and other disciplines, as well as in society at large. In the process, modern literary theory - at first often implicit in literary texts themselves - emancipated itself from classical poetics and rhetoric, and literary criticism emerged as a full-time professional activity catering for an expanding literate public. The volume is international both in coverage and in authorship. Extensive bibliographies provide guidance for further specialised study.

Editors' preface
Notes on contributors
Part I. Introduction: Criticism and Tradition: 1. The institution of criticism in the eighteenth century Douglas Lane Patey
2. Ancients and moderns Douglas Lane Patey
Part II. Genres: 3. Poetry, 1660–1740 James Sambrook
4. Poetry, after 1740 William Keach
5. Drama, 1660–1740 Maximilian E. Novak
6. Drama, after 1740 John Osborne
7. Prose fiction: France English Showalter Jr
8. Prose fiction: Great Britain Michael McKeon
9. Prose fiction: Germany and the Netherlands C. W. Schoneveld
10. Historiography Michel Baridon
11. Biography and autobiography Felicity A. Nussbaum
12. Criticism and the rise of periodical literature James Basker
Part III. Language and Style: 13. Theories of language Nicholas Hudson
14. The contributions of rhetoric to literary criticism George A. Kennedy
15. Theories of style Pat Rogers
16. Generality and particularity Leo Damrosch
17. The sublime Jonathan Lamb
Part IV. Themes and Movements: 18. Sensibility and literary criticism John Mullan
19. Women and literary criticism Terry Castle
20. Primitivism Maximillian E. Novak
21. Medieval revival and the Gothic Peter Sabor
22. Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau and the Encyclopédie Charles A. Porter
23. German literary theory from Gottsched to Goethe Klaus L. Berghahn
24. The Scottish enlightenment Joan H. Pittock
25. Canons and canon formation Jan Gorak
Part V. Literature and Other Disciplines: 26. Literature and philosophy Susan Manning
27. The psychology of literary creation and literary response James Sambrook
28. Taste and aesthetics: (i) Shaftesbury and Addison: criticism and the public taste David Marshall
(ii) The rise of aesthetics from Baumgarten to Humboldt Hans Reiss
29. Literature and the other arts: (i) Ut pictura poesis David Marshall
(ii) The picturesque David Marshall
(iii) Literature and music Dean Mace
(iv) Parallels between the arts Dean Mace
30. Classical scholarship and literary criticism Glenn W. Most
31. Biblical scholarship and literary criticism Marcus Walsh
32. Science and literary criticism Michel Baridon
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literature: history & criticism [DS]