This is the most comprehensive account to date of the history of literary criticism in Britain and Europe between 1660 and 1800. Unlike previous histories, it is not just a chronological survey, but a multi-disciplinary study of how the understanding of literature in the modern era was shaped by developments in intellectual, cultural and social history. It provides an authoritative historical overview in all areas of literary studies. Extensive bibliographies supply detailed guidance for further research.
Contents:
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.
