Keywords: sentimental x
American History: early to 18th Century (2)
World Medieval History (1)
American, 19th Century Literature (13)
Women's Literature (1)
Gay and Lesbian Studies (1)
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in Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers: Humanity and the Humane in Ancient Philosophy and Literature
Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This brief chapter draws out the implications of the earlier chapters, particularly in respect of the fact that even where it appears that morality is responsive to natural facts which can be ... More
This brief chapter draws out the implications of the earlier chapters, particularly in respect of the fact that even where it appears that morality is responsive to natural facts which can be determined first by biology, in reality there are no such facts, and their relevance is not given in nature. The relevance of certain facts is determined by our moral outlook, and different moral outlooks seem to be available. However, the chapter suggests that not all moral outlooks are equally sound. This is not because one is more true to some independent facts of nature, but one is more true to independent facts of moral truth, about the more noble and generous outlook towards our fellow creatures; this is where the distinction between the humane and the sentimental is drawn.Less
This brief chapter draws out the implications of the earlier chapters, particularly in respect of the fact that even where it appears that morality is responsive to natural facts which can be determined first by biology, in reality there are no such facts, and their relevance is not given in nature. The relevance of certain facts is determined by our moral outlook, and different moral outlooks seem to be available. However, the chapter suggests that not all moral outlooks are equally sound. This is not because one is more true to some independent facts of nature, but one is more true to independent facts of moral truth, about the more noble and generous outlook towards our fellow creatures; this is where the distinction between the humane and the sentimental is drawn.
Keywords: moral truth, morality, relativism, humane, sentimental, fact, value, biology
Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684 to 1740
Ros Ballaster
Literature, 18th-century Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Historicist and feminist accounts of the 'rise of the novel' have neglected the phenomenon of the professional woman writer in England prior to the advent of the sentimental novel in the 1740s. This ... More
Historicist and feminist accounts of the 'rise of the novel' have neglected the phenomenon of the professional woman writer in England prior to the advent of the sentimental novel in the 1740s. This book explores the means by which the three leading Tory women novelists of the late 17th and early 18th centuries challenged and reworked both contemporary gender ideologies and generic convention. The seduction plot provided Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley, and Eliza Haywood with a vehicle for dramatizing their own appropriation of the 'masculine' power of fiction-making. Seduction is employed in these fictions as a metaphor for both novelistic production (the seduction of the reader by the writer) and party political machination (the seduction of the public by the politician). The book also explores the debts early prose fiction owed to French 17th-century models of fiction-writing and argues that Behn, Manley, and Haywood succeed in producing a distinctively 'English' and female 'form' for the amatory novel.Less
Seductive Forms : Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684 to 1740
Historicist and feminist accounts of the 'rise of the novel' have neglected the phenomenon of the professional woman writer in England prior to the advent of the sentimental novel in the 1740s. This book explores the means by which the three leading Tory women novelists of the late 17th and early 18th centuries challenged and reworked both contemporary gender ideologies and generic convention. The seduction plot provided Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley, and Eliza Haywood with a vehicle for dramatizing their own appropriation of the 'masculine' power of fiction-making. Seduction is employed in these fictions as a metaphor for both novelistic production (the seduction of the reader by the writer) and party political machination (the seduction of the public by the politician). The book also explores the debts early prose fiction owed to French 17th-century models of fiction-writing and argues that Behn, Manley, and Haywood succeed in producing a distinctively 'English' and female 'form' for the amatory novel.
Keywords: sentimental novel, Tory women, women novelists, gender ideologies, amatory novel, seduction, Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood, fiction-making
Elizabeth R. Napier
in The Failure of Gothic: Problems of Disjunction in an Eighteenth-Century Literary Form
Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts about the Gothic. It argues that the paradox of the Gothic is that the genre, despite its close connection to sentimental narrative, actually prohibits ... More
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts about the Gothic. It argues that the paradox of the Gothic is that the genre, despite its close connection to sentimental narrative, actually prohibits sentimental and dynamic judgements on the part of its readers: by exhibiting such extreme emotion in others, it denies that opportunity to its audience. The Gothic seems to gain its most characteristic effects through a complex procedure of deprivation and destruction; tantalizing its audience with emotions that it cannot fully feel, it manufactures an atmosphere approaching moral eroticism.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts about the Gothic. It argues that the paradox of the Gothic is that the genre, despite its close connection to sentimental narrative, actually prohibits sentimental and dynamic judgements on the part of its readers: by exhibiting such extreme emotion in others, it denies that opportunity to its audience. The Gothic seems to gain its most characteristic effects through a complex procedure of deprivation and destruction; tantalizing its audience with emotions that it cannot fully feel, it manufactures an atmosphere approaching moral eroticism.
Keywords: Gothic novels, Gothic fiction, deprivation, destruction, sentimental narrative
Sense and Sensibility in Così fan tutte
Jessica Waldoff
in Recognition in Mozart's Operas
Music, Opera
This chapter places Così in the context of the culture of sensibility that indoctrinated its impressionable quartet of lovers. Its seeming representation of an anti-sentimental position needs to be ... More
This chapter places Così in the context of the culture of sensibility that indoctrinated its impressionable quartet of lovers. Its seeming representation of an anti-sentimental position needs to be understood as a hallmark of sentimental works. When Don Alfonso's experiment sets the immediacy of feeling against the vows of constancy it was supposed to engender, he exploits a contradiction inherent in the sentimental genres all along. Special attention is given to the question of whether it is appropriate to view certain scenes (including "Vorrei Dir" and "Smanie implacabili") as parody, and to the problem of the ending. Recognition in this opera is divided against itself and the conflict between sentimental and anti-sentimental reaches a point of crisis at the dénouement, which explains why the opera's happy ending feels hollow to many.Less
This chapter places Così in the context of the culture of sensibility that indoctrinated its impressionable quartet of lovers. Its seeming representation of an anti-sentimental position needs to be understood as a hallmark of sentimental works. When Don Alfonso's experiment sets the immediacy of feeling against the vows of constancy it was supposed to engender, he exploits a contradiction inherent in the sentimental genres all along. Special attention is given to the question of whether it is appropriate to view certain scenes (including "Vorrei Dir" and "Smanie implacabili") as parody, and to the problem of the ending. Recognition in this opera is divided against itself and the conflict between sentimental and anti-sentimental reaches a point of crisis at the dénouement, which explains why the opera's happy ending feels hollow to many.
Keywords: culture of sensibility, problem of ending, sentimental, anti-sentimental, constancy
Sentimental Knowledge in La finta giardiniera
More than any other of Mozart's operas, La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl), draws on a culture and an archetype virtually unknown today: the culture is that of sensibility and the ... More
More than any other of Mozart's operas, La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl), draws on a culture and an archetype virtually unknown today: the culture is that of sensibility and the archetype that of the giardiniera to which the title refers — the sentimental heroine of Carlo Goldoni's and Niccolò Piccinni's wildly popular La buona figliuola. Both Piccinni's opera and Mozart's belong to a circle of works loosely based on Richardson's sentimental novel Pamela. Giardiniera has often been disparaged for its convoluted and somewhat static plot, but this chapter argues that it needs to be read as Dr. Johnson recommends we read Richardson: "for the sentiment". Supposed inconsistencies and implausibilities, including mad scenes for the central protagonists, are considered here as opportunities to indulge in feeling, a staple of the sentimental genres.Less
More than any other of Mozart's operas, La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl), draws on a culture and an archetype virtually unknown today: the culture is that of sensibility and the archetype that of the giardiniera to which the title refers — the sentimental heroine of Carlo Goldoni's and Niccolò Piccinni's wildly popular La buona figliuola. Both Piccinni's opera and Mozart's belong to a circle of works loosely based on Richardson's sentimental novel Pamela. Giardiniera has often been disparaged for its convoluted and somewhat static plot, but this chapter argues that it needs to be read as Dr. Johnson recommends we read Richardson: "for the sentiment". Supposed inconsistencies and implausibilities, including mad scenes for the central protagonists, are considered here as opportunities to indulge in feeling, a staple of the sentimental genres.
Keywords: La finta giardiniera, La buona figlioula, Pamela, Niccolò Piccinni, Richardson, sensibility, sentimental heroine, mad scenes
Fiordiligi: A Woman of Feeling
This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her ... More
This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her vulnerable to men, placing her virtue "in distress", but she is also a woman whose moral constancy is eventually overcome by the immediacy of her feelings for another. Fiordiligi's struggle brings into question one of the central tenets of the sentimental culture: that feeling makes its own virtue. Several moments crucial to this characterization are treated, including the trio "È la fede delle femmine", the sisters' first duet No. 4, the arias "Come scoglio" and "Per pietà", and the duet with Ferrando "Fra gli amplessi". The climactic recognition scenes in which feeling triumphs over constancy cannot be easily reconciled with the dénouement that restores both sisters to their original partners.Less
This chapter considers Fiordiligi's conflicted status as a sentimental heroine. She is a woman of feeling whose affectionate sensibility and natural sympathy for the suffering of others makes her vulnerable to men, placing her virtue "in distress", but she is also a woman whose moral constancy is eventually overcome by the immediacy of her feelings for another. Fiordiligi's struggle brings into question one of the central tenets of the sentimental culture: that feeling makes its own virtue. Several moments crucial to this characterization are treated, including the trio "È la fede delle femmine", the sisters' first duet No. 4, the arias "Come scoglio" and "Per pietà", and the duet with Ferrando "Fra gli amplessi". The climactic recognition scenes in which feeling triumphs over constancy cannot be easily reconciled with the dénouement that restores both sisters to their original partners.
Keywords: Così fan tutte, sentimental heroine, virtue in distress, sensibility, constancy, parody
Heavenly Speculations
in After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory
Religion, World Religions
The English speculated in an empirical way about heaven (as they had done about hell) in the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries. Isaac Watts envisaged what was virtually a Royal Society of ... More
The English speculated in an empirical way about heaven (as they had done about hell) in the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries. Isaac Watts envisaged what was virtually a Royal Society of intellectual speculation in heaven. Other thinkers discussed at length what avocations and travels would keep the saved occupied throughout eternity. The relation between our original bodies and the risen version was often discussed, with surprising results. Some—the "mortalists"—denied that the body could be immortal. One of the most striking speculative projects—Thomas Burnet's A Sacred Theory of the Earth, which explains what will happen after the General Resurrection—is described. There was also a heaven of sentimental eroticism, and a suggestion that we need not die at all.Less
The English speculated in an empirical way about heaven (as they had done about hell) in the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries. Isaac Watts envisaged what was virtually a Royal Society of intellectual speculation in heaven. Other thinkers discussed at length what avocations and travels would keep the saved occupied throughout eternity. The relation between our original bodies and the risen version was often discussed, with surprising results. Some—the "mortalists"—denied that the body could be immortal. One of the most striking speculative projects—Thomas Burnet's A Sacred Theory of the Earth, which explains what will happen after the General Resurrection—is described. There was also a heaven of sentimental eroticism, and a suggestion that we need not die at all.
Keywords: empirical speculation, intellectual, mortalists, Thomas Burnet, Isaac Watts, sentimental eroticism
The Argument from Motivation
Thomas Holden
in Spectres of False Divinity: Hume's Moral Atheism
Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter documents and examines Hume's argument from motivation to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the passions as the engines of action along with a form of ... More
This chapter documents and examines Hume's argument from motivation to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the passions as the engines of action along with a form of probabilistic reasoning about the likely character of any first cause or ultimate organizing principle responsible for the ordered universe. According to Hume, even though we know nothing positive about the distinctive intrinsic character of the deity, we can judge it highly unlikely that this ultimate being or principle has the sort of anthropomorphic sentimental psychology required to ground any responsiveness to moral concerns.Less
This chapter documents and examines Hume's argument from motivation to moral atheism. The argument appeals to Hume's account of the passions as the engines of action along with a form of probabilistic reasoning about the likely character of any first cause or ultimate organizing principle responsible for the ordered universe. According to Hume, even though we know nothing positive about the distinctive intrinsic character of the deity, we can judge it highly unlikely that this ultimate being or principle has the sort of anthropomorphic sentimental psychology required to ground any responsiveness to moral concerns.
Keywords: deity, Hume, motivation, passions, moral atheism, sentimental psychology, sentiments
Paradoxical Pastors; or, What the Novelist Imagined
Karin E. Gedge
in Without Benefit of Clergy: Women and the Pastoral Relationship in Nineteenth-Century American Culture
Nineteenth-century American readers regularly encountered powerful and paradoxical images of clergy and women in many fictive genres, a reflection of the cultural tensions manifested in the ... More
Nineteenth-century American readers regularly encountered powerful and paradoxical images of clergy and women in many fictive genres, a reflection of the cultural tensions manifested in the contemporary pastoral relationship. Sensational novelists such as George Lippard exposed the monstrous incongruity of the "reverend rake." Sentimental novelist Susan Warner constructed a romantic clerical hero who was both benevolent and despotic in his relationship with the female protagonist, while Harriet Beecher Stowe's minister was impotent, dependent on the women who supported him. Nathaniel Hawthorne's enduring Scarlet Letter portrayed the pastor as an unworthy saint and Hester Prynne as the worthy sinner. Even pious memoirs and parsonage novels acknowledged the intrusion of sexuality, "something peculiar and insidious" in Stowe's words, which inevitably corrupted the spiritual relationship between pastors and women. Only transforming it into a marital relationship could, to some degree, resolve the inherent sexual tension.Less
Nineteenth-century American readers regularly encountered powerful and paradoxical images of clergy and women in many fictive genres, a reflection of the cultural tensions manifested in the contemporary pastoral relationship. Sensational novelists such as George Lippard exposed the monstrous incongruity of the "reverend rake." Sentimental novelist Susan Warner constructed a romantic clerical hero who was both benevolent and despotic in his relationship with the female protagonist, while Harriet Beecher Stowe's minister was impotent, dependent on the women who supported him. Nathaniel Hawthorne's enduring Scarlet Letter portrayed the pastor as an unworthy saint and Hester Prynne as the worthy sinner. Even pious memoirs and parsonage novels acknowledged the intrusion of sexuality, "something peculiar and insidious" in Stowe's words, which inevitably corrupted the spiritual relationship between pastors and women. Only transforming it into a marital relationship could, to some degree, resolve the inherent sexual tension.
Keywords: nineteenth-century American literature, sensational novels, sentimental novels, pious memoirs, parsonage novels, pastoral relationship, sexuality, George Lippard, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne
From Sentimentality to Social Reform: The Emergence of Radical Christian Liberalism
Dan McKanan
in Identifying the Image of God: Radical Christians and Nonviolent Power in the Antebellum United States
Offers an overview of antebellum social reform movements, with particular emphasis on temperance, abolitionism, and nonresistance. These movements had diverse causes, including Jeffersonian ... More
Offers an overview of antebellum social reform movements, with particular emphasis on temperance, abolitionism, and nonresistance. These movements had diverse causes, including Jeffersonian liberalism, Protestant revivalism, liberal Protestant theology, and direct encounters between privileged reformers and members of oppressed groups. Some key leaders of social reform movements may be classified as "radical Christian liberals" because they linked their liberal faith in human nature to the Christian doctrine of the imago dei, yet were willing to contemplate the overthrow of all social institutions, even ostensibly liberal or Christian ones, that blocked the free expression of the imago dei. Radical Christian liberals may be subdivided into three groups: ultra reformers (William Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child) who embraced absolute nonviolence; sentimental reformers (T. S. Arthur, Harriet Beecher Stowe) who were implicitly nonviolent insofar as they stressed literary rather than political action; and revolutionary reformers (Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass) who were open to the use of coercion in the pursuit of radical social transformation.Less
From Sentimentality to Social Reform : The Emergence of Radical Christian Liberalism
Offers an overview of antebellum social reform movements, with particular emphasis on temperance, abolitionism, and nonresistance. These movements had diverse causes, including Jeffersonian liberalism, Protestant revivalism, liberal Protestant theology, and direct encounters between privileged reformers and members of oppressed groups. Some key leaders of social reform movements may be classified as "radical Christian liberals" because they linked their liberal faith in human nature to the Christian doctrine of the imago dei, yet were willing to contemplate the overthrow of all social institutions, even ostensibly liberal or Christian ones, that blocked the free expression of the imago dei. Radical Christian liberals may be subdivided into three groups: ultra reformers (William Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child) who embraced absolute nonviolence; sentimental reformers (T. S. Arthur, Harriet Beecher Stowe) who were implicitly nonviolent insofar as they stressed literary rather than political action; and revolutionary reformers (Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass) who were open to the use of coercion in the pursuit of radical social transformation.
Keywords: abolitionism, Jeffersonianism, liberal, nonresistance, revivalism, revolutionary, sentimental, social reform, temperance, theology
Through the Blood‐Stained Gate: Violence, Birth, and the Imago Dei in Fugitive Slave Narratives
Traces the development of nonviolent theology in the fugitive slave narratives published by the abolitionist movement. The new genre of the "fugitive slave narrative" grew out of the creative ... More
Traces the development of nonviolent theology in the fugitive slave narratives published by the abolitionist movement. The new genre of the "fugitive slave narrative" grew out of the creative encounter between escaped slaves and white abolitionists between 1836 and 1860. These texts – most famously the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass – made the practice of sentimental identification increasingly complex, as readers were asked to identify with the full humanity of former slaves. They also expressed a radical theology by asserting that slaves possessed the imago dei even before they were enslaved by human violence.Less
Through the Blood‐Stained Gate : Violence, Birth, and the Imago Dei in Fugitive Slave Narratives
Traces the development of nonviolent theology in the fugitive slave narratives published by the abolitionist movement. The new genre of the "fugitive slave narrative" grew out of the creative encounter between escaped slaves and white abolitionists between 1836 and 1860. These texts – most famously the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass – made the practice of sentimental identification increasingly complex, as readers were asked to identify with the full humanity of former slaves. They also expressed a radical theology by asserting that slaves possessed the imago dei even before they were enslaved by human violence.
Keywords: abolitionism, Frederick Douglass, fugitive slave narratives, nonviolent, sentimental, slavery, theology
Who Wants to be a Man? De-Stalinizing Gender, 1954–1992
in A History of Russian Women's Writing 1820–1992
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of 'women's ... More
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of 'women's writing' during this time were related to sentimental topics such as the family and love. By the arrival of the 1990s however, Russian women's writing slowly approached a new point of change in direction that led to the creation of new perspectives and new opportunities.Less
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of 'women's writing' during this time were related to sentimental topics such as the family and love. By the arrival of the 1990s however, Russian women's writing slowly approached a new point of change in direction that led to the creation of new perspectives and new opportunities.
Keywords: changes, Russian women writers, 1950s, early 1990s, women's writing, sentimental topics
At the Boundaries of Fiction: Samuel Paterson's Another Traveller!
Katherine S.H. Turner
in Tradition in Transition: Women Writers, Marginal Texts, and the Eighteenth-Century Canon
Literature, Women's Literature, 18th-century Literature
For some 200 years, the 'imitations' of Sterne's A Sentimental Journey which fill the 'minor fiction' pages of bibliographies have been subject to critical denigration. This chapter examines one of ... More
For some 200 years, the 'imitations' of Sterne's A Sentimental Journey which fill the 'minor fiction' pages of bibliographies have been subject to critical denigration. This chapter examines one of the most successful of the denigrated 'imitators' of A Sentimental Journey. Specifically, it looks at Samuel Paterson's Another Traveller!, which was hailed by the Monthly and Critical Reviews as a literary and moral tour de force. By exploring the closely related issues of genre and originality, and placing these within a historical framework, new light is thrown on the social and political importance of the 'sentimental' travel narrative.Less
For some 200 years, the 'imitations' of Sterne's A Sentimental Journey which fill the 'minor fiction' pages of bibliographies have been subject to critical denigration. This chapter examines one of the most successful of the denigrated 'imitators' of A Sentimental Journey. Specifically, it looks at Samuel Paterson's Another Traveller!, which was hailed by the Monthly and Critical Reviews as a literary and moral tour de force. By exploring the closely related issues of genre and originality, and placing these within a historical framework, new light is thrown on the social and political importance of the 'sentimental' travel narrative.
Keywords: travel literature, travel narrative, A Sentimental Journey, Samuel Paterson, Another Traveller
Maternal Discourse as Antebellum Social Protest
CLAUDIA TATE
in Domestic Allegories of Political Desire: The Black Heroine's Text at the Turn of the Century
Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter starts by looking back to the mid-nineteenth-century works of two antebellum writers, namely, Harriet A. Jacobs and Harriet E. Wilson. These pieces constructed the cultural network in ... More
This chapter starts by looking back to the mid-nineteenth-century works of two antebellum writers, namely, Harriet A. Jacobs and Harriet E. Wilson. These pieces constructed the cultural network in the early tradition of African American writing, and manipulated the reformist discourse of domesticity to build protests against oppression, particularly sexual and racial discrimination. The objectives of these post-reconstruction novels were discernable not so much as the ideal imagery of domesticity, but as depictions of "sentimental power" as coined by Jane Tompkins. This sentimental power recovers political desire from the domestic ambitions shown in the antebellum and post-reconstruction works. These include two chapters on "the kitchen politics of abolitionism" and on "politicizing the black mother's voice."Less
This chapter starts by looking back to the mid-nineteenth-century works of two antebellum writers, namely, Harriet A. Jacobs and Harriet E. Wilson. These pieces constructed the cultural network in the early tradition of African American writing, and manipulated the reformist discourse of domesticity to build protests against oppression, particularly sexual and racial discrimination. The objectives of these post-reconstruction novels were discernable not so much as the ideal imagery of domesticity, but as depictions of "sentimental power" as coined by Jane Tompkins. This sentimental power recovers political desire from the domestic ambitions shown in the antebellum and post-reconstruction works. These include two chapters on "the kitchen politics of abolitionism" and on "politicizing the black mother's voice."
Keywords: Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Wilson, antebellum, post-reconstruction, sentimental power
The Play of PossibilitiesSerfs Enacting Aristocrats, Countesses Playing Peasants
Inna Naroditskaya
in Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarina from State to Stage
Music, History, Western
The image of Aniuta (likely from French Annette) proliferated the eighteenth-century Russian comic operas, played in private theatres by serfs troupes and aristocratic dilettantes. These comic operas ... More
The image of Aniuta (likely from French Annette) proliferated the eighteenth-century Russian comic operas, played in private theatres by serfs troupes and aristocratic dilettantes. These comic operas revealed three types of social cross-dressing: 1) in operatic plots, a countess could be disguised as a shepherdess; a peasant heroine might rediscover her aristocratic origin; 2) a real princess or countess could play a rustic girl, imitating her accent and manners; a young beautiful serf actress impersonated a noble matron; and 3) social transgression spilled from the stage to a real life when actors or aristocrats attempted to navigate across polar social divides. One particular case that relates to all three levels of cross-dressing is the story of the serf actress Parasha Zhemchugova and the owner of a famous serf troupe and the actress, a member of one of the prominent families, Count Nikolai Sheremetev. Strong social and gender biases and at the same time a certain ambivalences and "dangerous" possibilities associated with the culture of masquerade illuminate the sensibilities of late eighteenth century Russia, as reflected in sentimental and comic operas and in figures such as Prince Ivan Dolgorukov.Less
The image of Aniuta (likely from French Annette) proliferated the eighteenth-century Russian comic operas, played in private theatres by serfs troupes and aristocratic dilettantes. These comic operas revealed three types of social cross-dressing: 1) in operatic plots, a countess could be disguised as a shepherdess; a peasant heroine might rediscover her aristocratic origin; 2) a real princess or countess could play a rustic girl, imitating her accent and manners; a young beautiful serf actress impersonated a noble matron; and 3) social transgression spilled from the stage to a real life when actors or aristocrats attempted to navigate across polar social divides. One particular case that relates to all three levels of cross-dressing is the story of the serf actress Parasha Zhemchugova and the owner of a famous serf troupe and the actress, a member of one of the prominent families, Count Nikolai Sheremetev. Strong social and gender biases and at the same time a certain ambivalences and "dangerous" possibilities associated with the culture of masquerade illuminate the sensibilities of late eighteenth century Russia, as reflected in sentimental and comic operas and in figures such as Prince Ivan Dolgorukov.
Keywords: serfs, serf actress, private theatre, cross-dressing, transgression, comic opera, sentimental opera, aristocratic dilettantes
Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850–1920
David E. Shi
History, History of Ideas
This book provides a history of the rise of realism in American culture. It captures the character and sweep of this all-encompassing movement—ranging from Winslow Homer to the rise of the Ash Can ... More
This book provides a history of the rise of realism in American culture. It captures the character and sweep of this all-encompassing movement—ranging from Winslow Homer to the rise of the Ash Can school, from Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Dreiser. It begins with a look at the idealist atmosphere of the antebellum years, when otherwordly themes are considered the only fit subject for art. Whitman's assault on these standards coincided with sweeping changes in American society: the bloody Civil War, the aggressive advance of a modern scientific spirit, the popularity of photography, the expansion of cities, capitalism, and the middle class—all worked to shake the foundations of genteel idealism and sentimental romanticism. Both artists and the public developed an ever-expanding appetite for hard facts, and for art that accurately depicted them. As the book proceeds through the 19th century, it traces the realist revolution in each major area of arts and letters, combining an analysis of the movement's essential themes with incisive portraits of its leading practitioners. Here we see Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., shaken to stern realism by the horrors of the Civil War; the influence of Walt Whitman on painter Thomas Eakins and architect Louis Sullivan, a leader of the Chicago school; the local-color verisimilitude of Louisa May Alcott and Sarah Orne Jewett; and the impact of urban squalor on intrepid young writers such as Stephen Crane.Less
Facing Facts : Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850–1920
This book provides a history of the rise of realism in American culture. It captures the character and sweep of this all-encompassing movement—ranging from Winslow Homer to the rise of the Ash Can school, from Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Dreiser. It begins with a look at the idealist atmosphere of the antebellum years, when otherwordly themes are considered the only fit subject for art. Whitman's assault on these standards coincided with sweeping changes in American society: the bloody Civil War, the aggressive advance of a modern scientific spirit, the popularity of photography, the expansion of cities, capitalism, and the middle class—all worked to shake the foundations of genteel idealism and sentimental romanticism. Both artists and the public developed an ever-expanding appetite for hard facts, and for art that accurately depicted them. As the book proceeds through the 19th century, it traces the realist revolution in each major area of arts and letters, combining an analysis of the movement's essential themes with incisive portraits of its leading practitioners. Here we see Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., shaken to stern realism by the horrors of the Civil War; the influence of Walt Whitman on painter Thomas Eakins and architect Louis Sullivan, a leader of the Chicago school; the local-color verisimilitude of Louisa May Alcott and Sarah Orne Jewett; and the impact of urban squalor on intrepid young writers such as Stephen Crane.
Keywords: realism, culture, Walt Whitman, idealism, sentimental romanticism, realist revolution, Thomas Eakins, Louis Sullivan, Louisa May Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Introduction: Revolutionary Letters
Nicola J. Watson
in Revolution and the Form of the British Novel, 1790-1825: Intercepted Letters, Interrupted Seductions
Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This introductory chapter traces the ways in which the residue of the sentimental novel was assimilated within the divergent strands of the novel between 1790 and 1825, regarding these formal ... More
This introductory chapter traces the ways in which the residue of the sentimental novel was assimilated within the divergent strands of the novel between 1790 and 1825, regarding these formal innovations as fictional accommodations of the same cultural anxiety — that crystallized by the French Revolution. In particular, it examines the fate of the letter within the novel as a pointer to the changing concerns of literary-political discourse over the period, thereby offering a coherent account of one neglected and especially pertinent subgenre at a crucial moment in its evolution. An overview of subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter traces the ways in which the residue of the sentimental novel was assimilated within the divergent strands of the novel between 1790 and 1825, regarding these formal innovations as fictional accommodations of the same cultural anxiety — that crystallized by the French Revolution. In particular, it examines the fate of the letter within the novel as a pointer to the changing concerns of literary-political discourse over the period, thereby offering a coherent account of one neglected and especially pertinent subgenre at a crucial moment in its evolution. An overview of subsequent chapters is also presented.
Keywords: sentimental novel, cultural anxiety, fiction, French Revolution
Edward L. Ayers
in Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906
History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter discusses the Southerners passion for singing, playing, and dancing. The instruments of choice were guitars, banjos, and pianos. The songs range from bouncy pop songs to sentimental ... More
This chapter discusses the Southerners passion for singing, playing, and dancing. The instruments of choice were guitars, banjos, and pianos. The songs range from bouncy pop songs to sentimental songs and "coon" songs which were parodies of black language, styles, and aspirations. The birth of a distinct Southern music and its development is also discussed in this chapter. A form of black music called "patting juba" emerged among the black Southerners developing into "ragged" music which became a national sensation. This chapter also describes the birth of jazz music and blues. Music has long been a part of the Southern lifestyle and its effects can be seen in all aspects of life in the New South.Less
This chapter discusses the Southerners passion for singing, playing, and dancing. The instruments of choice were guitars, banjos, and pianos. The songs range from bouncy pop songs to sentimental songs and "coon" songs which were parodies of black language, styles, and aspirations. The birth of a distinct Southern music and its development is also discussed in this chapter. A form of black music called "patting juba" emerged among the black Southerners developing into "ragged" music which became a national sensation. This chapter also describes the birth of jazz music and blues. Music has long been a part of the Southern lifestyle and its effects can be seen in all aspects of life in the New South.
Keywords: guitars, banjos, pianos, pop song, sentimental songs, coon songs, Southern music, patting juba, ragged music, jazz
Sentimental Memorials: Women and the Novel in Literary History
Melissa Sodeman
Sentimental Memorials explores how popular women writers used the art form of the novel to record their changing relations to literary history. At the end of the eighteenth century, as sentimental ... More
Sentimental Memorials explores how popular women writers used the art form of the novel to record their changing relations to literary history. At the end of the eighteenth century, as sentimental fiction slipped out of emerging conceptions of literary value, Sophia Lee, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, and Mary Robinson reflected on what changes in literature's meaning and status would mean for their own works and legacies. Their novels provide a means of understanding how women novelists clarified, protested, and finally memorialized the historical conditions under which they wrote. Calling for a new understanding of sentimental fiction as a self-historicizing and highly self-conscious genre, Sentimental Memorials sheds new light on sentimental novels, on female authorship, and on the history of the transformations reshaping literature at the end of the eighteenth century.Less
Sentimental Memorials : Women and the Novel in Literary History
Sentimental Memorials explores how popular women writers used the art form of the novel to record their changing relations to literary history. At the end of the eighteenth century, as sentimental fiction slipped out of emerging conceptions of literary value, Sophia Lee, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, and Mary Robinson reflected on what changes in literature's meaning and status would mean for their own works and legacies. Their novels provide a means of understanding how women novelists clarified, protested, and finally memorialized the historical conditions under which they wrote. Calling for a new understanding of sentimental fiction as a self-historicizing and highly self-conscious genre, Sentimental Memorials sheds new light on sentimental novels, on female authorship, and on the history of the transformations reshaping literature at the end of the eighteenth century.
Keywords: British novel, sentimental novel, eighteenth century, literature, female authorship, literary history
The Creative Suffering of God
Paul S. Fiddes
The theme that God suffers with his world has become a familiar one in recent years, but a careful examination is needed of what it means to talk about the suffering of God, while avoiding the danger ... More
The theme that God suffers with his world has become a familiar one in recent years, but a careful examination is needed of what it means to talk about the suffering of God, while avoiding the danger of a merely sentimental belief. This book offers a consistent way of thinking about a God who suffers supremely and yet is still the kind of God whom the Christian tradition has witnessed. It is also about a God who suffers universally and yet is still present uniquely in the cross of Christ. It is at once both a survey of recent thought about the suffering of God and a proposal for a way forward in this area of Christian theology. The book surveys four main trends of recent thought: the 'theology of the cross' in modern German theology (as represented particularly in the work of Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, and Eberhard Jüngel); American process theology; 'the death of God' theology; and finally, the rejection of the whole idea of divine passibility by modern followers of classical theismLess
The theme that God suffers with his world has become a familiar one in recent years, but a careful examination is needed of what it means to talk about the suffering of God, while avoiding the danger of a merely sentimental belief. This book offers a consistent way of thinking about a God who suffers supremely and yet is still the kind of God whom the Christian tradition has witnessed. It is also about a God who suffers universally and yet is still present uniquely in the cross of Christ. It is at once both a survey of recent thought about the suffering of God and a proposal for a way forward in this area of Christian theology. The book surveys four main trends of recent thought: the 'theology of the cross' in modern German theology (as represented particularly in the work of Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, and Eberhard Jüngel); American process theology; 'the death of God' theology; and finally, the rejection of the whole idea of divine passibility by modern followers of classical theism
Keywords: creative suffering, God, sentimental belief, Christian tradition, cross of Christ, suffering of God, Christian theology, modern German theology, Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann