Justice, Dissent, and the Sublime

186 Pages·2012·1.27 MB·English

by  Canuel, Mark

Justice, Dissent, and the Sublime
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M
Justice, Dissent,
Nand the Sublime
Mark Canuel
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2012
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Canuel, Mark.
Justice, dissent, and the sublime / Mark Canuel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4214-0587-2 (hdbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4214-0609-1
(electronic) — ISBN 1-4214-0587-3 (hdbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-4214-
0609-8 (electronic)
1. Aesthetics in literature. 2. English literature—18th century—
History and criticism. 3. English literature—19th century—History
and criticism. 4. Justice in literature. 5. Sublime, The, in literature.
6. Romanticism—Great Britain. I. Title.
PR448.A37C35 2012
820.9(cid:2)007—dc23 2011047314
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
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more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or
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materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least
30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
chapter 1 Beautiful People 14
chapter 2 Justice and the Romantic Sublime 40
chapter 3 The Reparative Impulse 63
chapter 4 Biopolitics and the Sublime 94
chapter 5 Aesthetics and Animal Theory 121
Notes 147
Index 171
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the questions and comments from several audiences who
heard parts of this work as it unfolded—at meetings of the North American
Society for the Study of Romanticism and the Modern Language Association,
at the English Department Colloquium at the University of Illinois at Chi-
cago, at the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Cultures Workshop at the
University of Chicago, and at the Columbia University Society of Fellows in
the Humanities.
I want to add particular thanks to Jennifer Ashton, Lauren Berlant, Jessica
Berman, John Bugg, Jim Chandler, Ralph Cintròn, Jenny Davidson, Lennard
Davis, Stephen Engelmann, Andy Franta, Lisa Freeman, Linda Gregerson,
Sharon Holland, Oren Izenberg, Justin Joyce, Anna Kornbluh, Kevin Lamb,
Zach Lamm, Michael Lieb, Sandra Macpherson, Dwight McBride, Walter Mi-
chaels, Davide Panagia, Larry Poston, Christina Pugh, Richard Sha, and Sarah
Zimmerman. They commented on arguments, suggested reading, read chap-
ters, or off ered encouragement as the book progressed.
Thanks are also due to Matt McAdam, my editor at the Johns Hopkins
University Press, for his early and continued support for the project, and to
Colin Jager, the reader for the Press, who off ered extraordinarily detailed in-
viii Acknowledgments
sights on every chapter and helped to make this book better. Joanne Allen’s
copyediting corrected many errors and infelicities in my writing. Rob Kauf-
man gave the manuscript a complete reading that was both generous and
rigorous, and I have only begun to think about some of his comments. Mary
Beth Rose helped sharpen and expand arguments throughout the book; she
also patiently listened to—and thoughtfully engaged—my arguments even
in their earliest and sloppiest stages.
Parts of chapters 1 and 2 were published in an earlier form as “Doing Jus-
tice in Aesthetics,” Representations 95 (Summer 2006): 76–104.
I dedicate this book to my many teachers from whom I continue to learn,
including Lynda K. Bundtzen, Sharon Cameron, Jerome Christensen, Frances
Ferguson, Jan Glitzenstein, Leo Grant, Larry Graver, Paul Holdengräber, Mary
Poovey, Chris Pye, Willard Spiegelman, Karen Swann, and Betty Winograd.
Justice, Dissent, and the Sublime