Contesting Cosmopolitan Moments in the Long Eighteenth Century - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism) by Enit Karafili Steiner (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines literary manifestations of eighteenth-century cosmopolitanism to reveal cosmopolitanism's relevance for postcoloniality.

Book Synopsis

Contesting Cosmopolitan Moments in the Long Eighteenth Century traces expansions of Classical cosmopolitanism in long-eighteenth-century Britain to shows how acts of inclusion from cosmopolitan viewpoints sought to cope with British imperialism, war, social injustice, slavery, and technologies of self- and societal improvement, concerns that survive to this day. The Classical inheritance uncovered here yields more precise contouring of cosmopolitanism and of the eighteenth-century innovations that prefigure postcolonial debates. Additionally, considerations of style fill a lacuna in eighteenth-century literary studies, where cosmopolitanism remains a rather under-explored hermeneutical tool. Inviting readers to appreciate cosmopolitanism as a developing rather than as a static and completed philosophy, this study refutes an objection that circulated in the eighteenth century and is still present today, namely, cosmopolitanism's disdain for local values.

Review Quotes

In Enit Steiner's wide-ranging book the literature of the long eighteenth century is reconsidered from a fresh perspective. From Goldsmith to Wollstonecraft to Mary Shelley, Abu Talib and abolitionist literature, Steiner asserts an enduring cosmopolitan spirit where others would previously see little more than a strong proclivity towards universalism. Her approach is anchored in a performative and situationist understanding of cosmopolitanism that eschews its interpretation as an immutable set of values or a reliable manual for world citizenship.--Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London