Against Better Judgment: Irrational Action and Literary Invention in the Long Eighteenth Century - Couverture souple

Manganaro, Thomas Salem

 
9780813947303: Against Better Judgment: Irrational Action and Literary Invention in the Long Eighteenth Century
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0813947308 ISBN 13 : 9780813947303
Editeur : University of Virginia Press, 2022

Synopsis

Winner--2022 Walker Cowen Memorial Prize

Robinson Crusoe recognizes it is foolish to leave for the open seas; nevertheless, he boards the ship. William Wordsworth of The Prelude sees the immense poetic task ahead of him, but instead of beginning work, he procrastinates by going for a walk. Centering on this sort of intentionally irrational action, originally defined as " akrasia" by the ancient Greeks and "weakness of will" in early Christian thought, Against Better Judgment argues that the phenomenon takes on renewed importance in the long eighteenth century.

In treating human minds and bodies as systems and machines, Enlightenment philosophers did not account for actions that may be undermotivated, contradictory, or self-betraying. A number of authors, from Daniel Defoe and Samuel Johnson to Jane Austen and John Keats, however, took up the phenomenon in inventive ways. Thomas Manganaro traces how English novelists, essayists, and poets of the period sought to represent akrasia in ways philosophy cannot, leading them to develop techniques and ideas distinctive to literary writing, including new uses of irony, interpretation, and contradiction. In attempting to give shape to the ways people knowingly and freely fail themselves, these authors produced a new linguistic toolkit that distinguishes literature's epistemological advantages when it comes to writing about people.

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À propos de l?auteur

Thomas Salem Manganaro is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Richmond.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of Virginia Press
Date d'édition
2022
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0813947308
ISBN 13 
9780813947303
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
240
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780813947297: Against Better Judgment: Irrational Action and Literary Invention in the Long Eighteenth Century

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0813947294 ISBN 13 :  9780813947297
Editeur : University of Virginia Press, 2022
Couverture rigide