Novel Minds - (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultu) by R Tierney-Hynes (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this lively and original book, eighteenth-century philosophy is called to account for what it owes to the early novel. Through the figure of the romance reader, the author tells a new story of eighteenth-century reading. The impressionable mind and mutable identity of the romance reader haunt the background of eighteenth-century definitions of the self, and the seductions of fiction insist on making their appearance in philosophy. Through discussions of Locke, Behn, Shaftesbury, Hume, and Richardson, this book traces the idea of romance as, in the process of engendering resistance, it comes nonetheless to define the empiricist mind as the reading mind. "--

Book Synopsis

Eighteenth-century philosophy owes much to the early novel. Using the figure of the romance reader this book tells a new story of eighteenth-century reading. The impressionable mind and mutable identity of the romance reader haunt eighteenth-century definitions of the self, and the seductions of fiction insist on making an appearance in philosophy.

Review Quotes

'Novel Minds delivers a nuanced understanding of the instabilities and uncertainties of the consciousness shaped by reading imagined in eighteenth-century philosophy and narrative prose. In a lively and engaging style, Tierney-Hynes brings the writings of significant writers into interesting conversation with each other.' - Ros Ballaster, Professor of 18th Century Studies, University of Oxford, UK

About the Author

REBECCA TIERNEY-HYNES is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has published essays in Eighteenth-Century Studies, SEL, and The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation.