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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN AFFECT THEORY AND LITERARY CRITICISM Eighteenth-Century Literary Affections Louise Joy Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism Series Editors Joel Faflak Western University London, ON, Canada Richard C. Sha Literature Department American University Washington, DC, USA The recent surge of interest in affect and emotion has productively crossed disciplinary boundaries within and between the humanities, social sci- ences, and sciences, but has not often addressed questions of literature and literary criticism as such. The first of its kind, Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism seeks theoretically informed scholarship that examines the foundations and practice of literary criticism in relation to affect theory. This series aims to stage contemporary debates in the field, addressing topics such as: the role of affective experience in literary composition and reception, particularly in non-Western literatures; exami- nations of historical and conceptual relations between major and minor philosophies of emotion and literary experience; and studies of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and disability that use affect theory as a primary critical tool. Editorial board members: Louis Charland (Western University)  – History and Philosophy of Affective Terms Patrick Colm Hogan (University of Connecticut, Storrs) – Cognitive and Affective Science of World Literature Holly Crocker (University of South Carolina) – Medieval Literature and Affect Theory David James (University of Birmingham, UK) –Modernism, the Contemporary Novel, and Affect Theory Julia Lupton (University of California, Irvine) – Renaissance and Theatre Kate Singer (Mount Holyoke College) – Affect and Romanticism Jane Thrailkill (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – Affect and American Realism Donald Wehrs (Auburn University) More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14653 Louise Joy Eighteenth-Century Literary Affections Louise Joy University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism ISBN 978-3-030-46007-5 ISBN 978-3-030-46008-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46008-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland A cknowledgements This book began life many years ago as a doctoral thesis, and I am indebted to Mary Jacobus for supervising my research and teaching me so much along the way, and to Peter de Bolla and Andrew Bennett, my examiners, for their encouragement and immensely constructive advice. I would like to acknowledge too the generosity and pertinence of the com- ments given by the manuscript’s two peer reviewers, whose suggestions I found exceptionally valuable. Sarah Annes Brown, Thomas Dixon, Caroline Gonda, Pam Hirsch, Nigel Leask, Emma Mason, Adam Rounce, Michelle Spring, Morag Styles and David Whitley supplied guidance and expertise at crucial stages. For helping me to make sense of the eigh- teenth century through conversation and friendship, then and now, I would also like to thank Liz Appel, Shahidha Bari, Rebecca Barr, Clémentine Beauvais, Rowan Rose Boyson, Georgina Evans, Alexander Freer, Sarah Haggarty, Katie Halsey, Daisy Hay, Jessica Lim, Suzanne Lynch, Rachel Malkin, Jane Partner, Sophie Read, Alexander Regier, Paul Vlitos, Marcus Waithe, Kate Wakely-M ulroney and Jane Wright. For their many forms of support during my PhD years and since, I would like to thank my parents, Hilary and Martin Joy, who have always taken pride in whatever I do. Work for the original dissertation was made possible by financial assis- tance provided by Cambridge University; by Newnham College, Cambridge; and by the Cambridge University English Faculty. In the v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS intervening years, I have found warmth, laughter, practical support and intellectual freedom at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, for which I count myself unusually lucky. Finally, of course, thank you to Richard, Zachary and Toby, the objects of my affections. c ontents 1 I ntroduction: Affective Knowledge 1 References 11 Part I Emotional Order 15 2 Model Affections 17 2.1 In the Body 18 2.2 In the Afterlife 22 2.3 Nowhere 33 References 52 3 Literary Passions 57 3.1 Poetry in Motion 58 3.2 Philosophical Abstraction 62 3.3 Affective Taste 67 3.4 Artificial Emotional Intelligence 79 References 92 Part II Literary Experience 97 4 Novel Feelings 99 4.1 Intimacy 101 vii viii CONTENTS 4.2 A lienation 118 References 138 5 Translated Emotions 143 5.1 Moral Transpositions 144 5.2 Tearful Transmissions 156 References 169 6 Poetic Pathos 173 6.1 In Suspension 174 6.2 In Order 187 6.3 In Mourning 191 References 203 7 Epilogue: Literary Affections 207 References 214 CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Affective Knowledge ‘There is no truth more universally known’, writes Henry Home, Lord Kames, the eminent Scottish Enlightenment man of letters, ‘than that tranquillity and sedateness are the proper state of mind for accurate per- ception and cool deliberation. […] Passion […] hath such influence over us, as to give a false light to all its objects’ (Henry Home 1785, I. 153). As Kames observes, reason’s necessary dominance over the passions is one of the most axiomatic precepts of the age. It is asserted and reasserted throughout eighteenth-century writing. The frequency with which this maxim is reiterated during the period gives the impression that its viability and desirability are accepted as straightforward. ‘What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone,’ proclaims Alexander Pope in his Essay on Man (Pope 1734, II, l. 42). Pope’s neat wisdom reappears at the end of the century in a sermon by the Reverend James Archer, who warns his congregation of ‘the conflict of tumultuous passion warring against our reason’ (Archer 1794, 60). Pronouncements such as these, which proffer what Kames refers to as ‘truth’, assert that which is purportedly ‘universally known’ with aphoristic certainty. But does the word ‘known’ here signify that which is discovered from experience (empirically) or that which is believed in theory (conjecturally)? Does the word ‘truth’ refer to the idea that rea- son should govern passion or to the utterance of this idea? It is hard to discern whether Kames’s statement, like Pope’s a few decades earlier and Archer’s a few decades later, functions as a philosophical proposition or a critical observation; whether the knowledge on offer is their own or a © The Author(s) 2020 1 L. Joy, Eighteenth-Century Literary Affections, Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46008-2_1

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