Sense, sensibility, sensation, sentiment, sentimentality – in the mid-eighteenth century these terms form an intricate web of overlapping meanings and connotations. They permeate philosophical, scientific, and medical discourses, always circling around consequential questions regarding the relation of body and mind, feeling and thought, passion and reason. Present-day conceptions of the Enlightenment as the ‘Age of Reason’ tend to obscure how much the period was immersed in discussions about the role of what today we call ‘emotions’ or ‘affects’ and their significance for sociality and morality.
The ‘Sentimental Novel’ as a literary genre reflects these issues, participating in and commenting on the contemporary ‘cult of sensibility’ and its objective of individual and collective refinement of the faculties of feeling. Confronting its protagonists with episodes of heart-rending distress, supreme happiness, and all imaginable stages in between, it explores the emotional responses, sympathy, moral sense, and cognition of both characters and readers.
In this seminar, we will read and discuss Oliver Goldsmith’s _The Vicar of Wakefield_ (1766) and Laurence Sterne’s _A Sentimental Journey _(1768), often numbered among the pioneering works of the genre, and Henry Mackenzie’s _The Man of Feeling_ (1771), sometimes called its most paradigmatic representative. Besides their treatment of politics, morality, and social class, our main focus will be on the distinctive aesthetic features of these short and episodic novels and on the entanglements of their form and content with historical and modern theories of mind and body. We will also pay attention to the ambiguous and self-conscious attitude towards sentimentalism and sensibility frequently displayed by these texts, which often border on the ironic and (implicitly) raise doubts about the practical value of the effusive emotionality they seem to commend.
Students are required to obtain their own (print) copies of the three novels. Please, if possible, get hold of the latest ‘Oxford World’s Classics’ editions of the texts, as this would ensure that we all use the same versions. (They are also very well edited and affordable).
Anmelderegeln
Diese Veranstaltung gehört zum Anmeldeset "ELW/ALW/NELK Aufbaumodul MA: HS".
Folgende Regeln gelten für die Anmeldung:
Die Anmeldung ist möglich von 02.10.2020, 10:00 bis 26.10.2020, 10:00.
Diese Regel gilt von 02.10.2020 10:00 bis 26.10.2020 10:00. Die Anmeldung zu maximal 3 Veranstaltungen des Anmeldesets ist erlaubt.
Es wird eine festgelegte Anzahl von Plätzen in den Veranstaltungen verteilt.
Die Plätze in den betreffenden Veranstaltungen wurden am 28.10.2020 um 10:00 verteilt. Weitere Plätze werden evtl. über Wartelisten zur Verfügung gestellt.
