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Humanities
Special Issues
The Enlightenment in Literature and Other Art Forms
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The Enlightenment in Literature and Other Art Forms

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2020) | Viewed by 3371

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Catherine Jones

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UB, Scotland, UK
Interests: Enlightenment; Romanticism; literature; history; music; opera; visual culture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The period of the Enlightenment – conventionally the long eighteenth century (c. 1685 – c. 1815) – is frequently referred to as ‘The Age of Reason’. This characterisation of the period reflects aspects of the age’s self-understanding, as well as intellectual historians constructions of the Enlightenment over recent decades as consisting, in essence, of the belief that the expansion of knowledge, the application of reason, and dedication to scientific method would result in the greater progress and happiness of humankind. Yet historians of imaginative literature and of other art forms such as opera have shown that it is a distortion to describe the Enlightenment exclusively as an ‘Age of Reason’– especially if such a description re-inscribes the commonly accepted dichotomy of thinking and feeling, ‘mind’ and ‘heart’.

This Special Issue on ‘The Enlightenment in Literature and Other Art Forms’ seeks to investigate the impact of key ideas of the Enlightenment, such as the concept of progress, on imaginative literature and other art forms, in Europe, the Atlantic world, and beyond. It will explore the extent to which authors, composers, librettists, painters and sculptors engaged with the intellectual movement of the Enlightenment; and the relationship of Enlightenment ideas to such developments in the arts as neoclassicism, the literature and drama of sentiment and sensibility, and Sturm und Drang. By focusing on imaginative literature and other art forms, the Special Issue will highlight the side of the Enlightenment often obscured in accounts of the period as ‘The Age of Reason’, the side which plumbed the whirlpools of subjectivity beneath the calm waters of reason, and that sometimes championed the potentially explosive sense imagery of the imagination over the coercive abstractions of reason.

Contributors are invited to reflect on the role of a wide range of forms and genres, including poetry, novels, plays, operas, instrumental music, paintings, and sculptures, in the cultures of Enlightenment; on the nature and function of the networks of the people who formulated the ideas and practices of the Enlightenment, and who gave them expression in philosophical and other texts; and on the impact and legacy of the Enlightenment as mediated in imaginative literature and other art forms. Comparative and transnational approaches are especially welcome.

Abstracts of 250 words to be submitted to <[email protected]> & <[email protected]> by 1 July 2019.

Final submissions to be received by 1 December 2019.

Dr. Catherine Jones
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • circulation of ideas
  • drama
  • Enlightenment
  • fiction
  • imagination
  • literature
  • music
  • networks
  • opera
  • painting
  • poetry
  • progress
  • reason
  • sculpture

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 301 KiB  
Article
Rousseau and the Qualified Support of Matriarchal Rule
by Boleslaw Z. Kabala
Humanities 2020, 9(3), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/h9030099 - 31 Aug 2020
Viewed by 2389
Abstract
The article investigates the relations between men and women in Rousseau’s major works to uncover the possibility of a long-term rule of women over men. Rousseau does provide examples of alternating rule between the sexes. However, given that the rule of prominent women [...] Read more.
The article investigates the relations between men and women in Rousseau’s major works to uncover the possibility of a long-term rule of women over men. Rousseau does provide examples of alternating rule between the sexes. However, given that the rule of prominent women like Sophie and Julie is indirect and more Machiavellian than that of men, I make the case that Rousseau sees straightforward control by women as more consistent with modern conditions (specifically in an indirect-rule as opposed to an instrumental-rationality sense). First, I provide examples of Sophie’s rule in Emile. Sophie rules Emile especially through acts of charity that incline Emile to participate in the project that Sophie has undertaken, making him more capable of willing generally. Second, I show that Julie at Clarens rules a number of the men there and particularly in the administration of the estate. Interestingly, like Sophie’s, her power is communicated through concrete examples of charitable action. Rousseau writes that, as a result, those around her are imbued with the spirit to contribute to the projects of importance to her, which also renders them more apt to will generally. Interestingly, two women as different as Sophie and Julie rule men in the same way: through charity. They do so as the result of a religious education. And, whereas religious education in Rousseau is in general anti-metaphysical, this is especially true for women compared to men. The examples of Sophie and Julie do, therefore, take us into territory of the sexes alternating in rule. But the difference in education suggests that for Rousseau their rule goes deeper and represents a relation more fundamental than the rule of men over women. The possibility is further confirmed through an analysis of Rousseau’s states of nature. At the end of the day, the reevaluation of relations between the sexes in Rousseau’s work is long overdue. I engage a rich scholarly literature and embark on a rereading of several of Rousseau’s works to offer a fresh interpretation that suggests the citizen of Geneva was not only open to a significant increase in the power of women over time, but that he actually favored matriarchy. The argument hopefully underscores the way in which great works are both timely and timeless. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Enlightenment in Literature and Other Art Forms)
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