Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740-1820Princeton University Press, 2000 M05 1 - 369 pages A deepening interest in both social and interior experience was a distinguishing feature of the cultural life of eighteenth-century Britain, influencing writers in all genres from fiction to philosophy. Focusing on this interplay of ideas and genres, Mark Phillips explores the ways in which writers and readers of history, memoir, biography and related literatures responded to the social and sentimental concerns of a modern, commercial society. He shows that the writing of history, which once concentrated exclusively on political events, widened its horizons in ways that often paralleled better-known developments in the contemporary novel. Ultimately, Phillips proposes a new model for the study of historiographical narrative. Countering tropological readings identified with Hayden White, he offers a more historically nuanced approach that stresses questions of genre and reception as a guide to understanding how narratives were reshaped by new audiences and new social needs. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 80
... difficult to write for many periods of British history (History of Great Britain, 6:255). 21 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1958). 22 See for example Blair's remarks on the insufficiency of 16 INTRODUCTION.
... human mind.” George Thomson, The Spirit of General History, in a series of lectures, from the eighth to the eighteenth century, 2d ed. (Lon- don, 1792), iii–iv. 24 See Arendt, The Human Condition, chap. 1. 25 Fowler, Kinds of Literature ...
... human beings are naturally led by their passions to form communities, and, conversely, that the way to understand society is to picture it as a place shaped by the meeting of experiencing and sociable minds. These reciprocities ...
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
Other editions - View all
Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740-1820 Mark Phillips No preview available - 2000 |
Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740-1820 Mark Phillips No preview available - 2000 |