Nash eloquently argues that following the movements of the wild man through the public sphere helps illuminate the process by which an abstract figure comes to constitute human nature. He contends that expressions such as wild man and noble savage operated as much more than metaphors: if anything, the trajectory was not one of a metaphor being taken literally but rather of the extant terminology’s actually shaping preconceptions by which real beings were observed and recognized by Europeans. Throughout his account, Nash insists on attending to the traffic between literary accounts and real material beings.
Shifting perspective from the thematic approach of intellectual history to a more eclectic cultural criticism, Nash introduces a refreshing means to understanding both the figures of the wild man and the citizen of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century.
Nash eloquently argues that following the movements of the wild man through the public sphere helps illuminate the process by which an abstract figure comes to constitute human nature. He contends that expressions such as wild man and noble savage operated as much more than metaphors: if anything, the trajectory was not one of a metaphor being taken literally but rather of the extant terminology’s actually shaping preconceptions by which real beings were observed and recognized by Europeans. Throughout his account, Nash insists on attending to the traffic between literary accounts and real material beings.
Shifting perspective from the thematic approach of intellectual history to a more eclectic cultural criticism, Nash introduces a refreshing means to understanding both the figures of the wild man and the citizen of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century.
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Wild Enlightenment: The Borders of Human Identity in the Eighteenth Century
232![Wild Enlightenment: The Borders of Human Identity in the Eighteenth Century](http://vs-images.bn-web.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.10.2)
Wild Enlightenment: The Borders of Human Identity in the Eighteenth Century
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780813921655 |
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Publisher: | University of Virginia Press |
Publication date: | 05/29/2003 |
Pages: | 232 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |