Sentimental Narrative and the Social Order in France, 1760-1820

by David J. Denby

Overview

In this interdisciplinary study of sentimental discourse of the late eighteenth century, David J. Denby sheds new light on Enlightenment thought and sensibility. He situates sentimental subliterature in its social and political context, analyzing how its formal structures are reflected in contemporary theories and texts concerning society, morality, politics, and history. Denby argues that sentimentalism is central to the culture of late-eighteenth-century France. Texts discussed include works by Rousseau and de Staël.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521025720
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/20/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in French , #47
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.47(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Note on spelling; Introduction: the politics of tears; 1. Three sentimental writers; 2. Towards a model of the sentimental text; 3. Love and money: social hierarchy in the sentimental text; 4. Sentimentalism in the rhetoric of the Revolution; 5. Sentimentalism and idéologie; 6. Beyond sentimentalism? Madame de Staël; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.