Memory and Enlightenment
Cultural Afterlives of the Long Eighteenth Century
1st Edition
Published on 11. November 2018
VIII, 251 pages
978-3-319-96710-3 (ISBN)
Description
This book illuminates how the 'long eighteenth century' (1660-1800) persists in our present through screen and performance media, writing and visual art. Tracing the afterlives of the period from the 1980s to the present, it argues that these emerging and changing forms stage the period as a point of origin for the grounding of individual identity in personal memory, and as a site of foundational traumas that shape cultural memory.
Reviews / Votes
"Why do eighteenth century history and aesthetics continue to haunt the contemporary imagination? To what purposes is this period put in the present? And how did the eighteenth century shape the very formation of modern memory itself? These are just some of the questions investigated in this accomplished and engaging study, which explores the way contemporary aesthetic forms stage the period of Enlightenment as the origin of the link between personal memory and individual identity, and as the site of foundational traumas that continue to shape cultural memory. The result is a rigorous examination of the power of this potent past to haunt present forms, and of the power of fiction to retroactively shape the past for the present." (Kate Mitchell, Australian National University, Australia)"James Ward's Memory and Enlightenment is a sophisticated, fascinating study of the ways the eighteenth century continues to cast a long shadow on our arts and politics today." (Emma Donoghue, authorof Slammerkin and Life Mask, Canada)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
Illustrations
VIII, 251 p. 9 illus.
File size
3,40 MB
ISBN-13
978-3-319-96710-3 (9783319967103)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-96710-3
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
11/2018
Palgrave Macmillan
€85.59
Shipment within 10-15 days
Person
James Ward
is a Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature at Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK.
Content
Acknowledgements.- 1.Introduction - Theatres of Memory.- 2.Restorations.- 3.'Ever-haunting Hogarth': Remembering the Hogarthian Progress.- 4.Emma Donoghue's Enlightenment Fictions.- 5.Memory and Enlightenment in the Poetry of Eavan Boland and Medbh McGuckian.- 6.
The Recruiting Officer
in the Penal Colony.- 7.Memory and Atrocity: Representing the
Zong
.-8.Conclusion.- Bibliography.
