The Emotions in Liberal Writing, C.1790-C.1920 - (Interventions: Rethinking the Nineteenth Century) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book analyses the treatment of the emotions in liberal writing in Britain over the long nineteenth century, showing how liberals were deeply concerned with the nature, function, and effects of the emotions and how links between reason, disinterestedness and the positive role of the emotions became a hallmark of liberal writing.

Book Synopsis

This volume from a selection of distinguished international scholars is the first of its kind to explore in depth the emotional dimensions of liberal writing in Britain over the long nineteenth century. Addressing liberal writing in the public sphere rather than high political or parliamentary liberalism, it comprises a clear, context-setting introduction and eleven substantive chapters. The chapters analyse key texts and figures from the 1790s through to the 1920s and offer several different approaches to the central concern with the emotions and liberalism. These include examining the place of the emotions in the 'good life'; the social and political function of the emotions; emotional rhetoric in liberal writing; and liberal theories of the emotions.

From the Back Cover

This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of liberalism in Britain during the long nineteenth century by arguing for the importance of its emotional dimensions.

Nineteenth-century liberal thought often aspired to a rational, disinterested and many-sided stance, but focusing on this aspiration has led to the neglect of its treatment of the emotions. Assumptions about the emotional poverty of liberalism and liberal culture have shaped much of the important scholarly work on the nineteenth century over the last two decades, one consequence of which has been limited discussion of liberalism in the history of the emotions, despite its co-emergence with new secular conceptions of the emotions. The principal aim of The emotions in liberal writing, c.1790-c.1920 is to modify these prevailing notions. Beginning with a substantial, context-setting introduction on liberalism and the emotions, it comprises eleven chapters by major scholars on liberal writing in the public sphere, ranging from journalism through imaginative literature and life-writing, to musicology, socio-political commentary and aesthetics. The chapters are grouped together in four thematically cognate sections: theoretical perspectives; gender and empire; liberal lives; aesthetics and the senses. As the collection amply demonstrates, the liberal writers working in these fields are deeply concerned with the nature, function and effects of the emotions, as well as often utilising emotional styles and rhetorics themselves.

Taken together, the introductory chapter and eleven case studies offer a compelling case for rethinking the place of the emotions in our understanding of British liberal culture over the long nineteenth century.

Review Quotes

'This volume shines a revealing light on the emotional dimension of nineteenth-century liberalism, bringing to life its deeply human core'
Alexandre Lefebvre, author of Liberalism as a Way of Life

About the Author

Jock Macleod is Associate Professor of Literary Studies at Griffith University

William Christie is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the Australian National University

Peter Denney is Associate Professor of History at Griffith University