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Vol. 4 | December 2017

Passions, Emotions and Cognition in the Long Eighteenth-Century Literature in England

edited by

Flavio Gregori    Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia    

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Language: it

Published: Dec. 18, 2017

abstract

The eighteenth century is commonly considered as the "age of reason".However, in the course of that century philosopher, writers, scientists, theologians, etc. showed an increasing interest in human passions and emotions that, as the newspaper The Spectator wrote, became "the light of the soul". "Without passion, continued The Spectator, you are but a blind man". David Hume even admitted that reason is the "slave of passions". Therefore, the eighteenth century decided to investigate the role of passions and emotions in various fields, from philosophy to medicine to the arts, and no longer, as happened in previous ages, by trying to harness them within a moral schematism but understanding how they affect and direct our knowledge and beliefs. The present issue of English Literature analyses the various ways in which English literature translated the eigheenth century's interest for passions and emotions, both as opposite and competing forms of knowledge (mind vs the senses, soul vs body, head vs heart, etc.) and as interactive capacities of man as a whole.

Copyright: © 2017 Flavio Gregori. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Table of contents

Table of Contents
Feeling the Emotions of Others
Michael Mckeon   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Finding the Passions
Margaret A. Doody   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Regina Maria Dal Santo   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot and Self-Knowledge
Judith Hawley   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Images of the Early 18th-Century Whig
Katarzyna Kozak   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Suspense in Robinson Crusoe
Riccardo Capoferro   
Dec. 18, 2017
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Poetry and Emotion in the Abergavenny Scandal of 1729
Lucia Quinault   
Dec. 18, 2017
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