Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 278 pages) |
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text file |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary |
A footprint materializes mysteriously on a deserted shore; a giant helmet falls from the sky; a traveler awakens to find his horse dangling from a church steeple. Eighteenth-century fiction brims with moments such as these, in which the prosaic rubs up against the marvelous. While it is a truism that the period's literature is distinguished by its realism and air of probability, Eighteenth-Century Fiction and the Reinvention of Wonder argues that wonder is integral to-rather than antithetical to-the developing techniques of novelistic fiction. Positioning its reader on the cusp between recognition and estrangement, between faith and doubt, modern fiction hinges upon wonder. 'Eighteenth-Century Fiction and the Reinvention of Wonder's chapters unfold its new account of fiction's rise through surprising new readings of classic early novels-from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey-as well as bringing to attention lesser known works, most notably Rudolf Raspe's Baron Munchausen's 'Narrative of His Marvellous Travels'. In this bold new account, the eighteenth century bears witness not to the world's disenchantment but rather to wonder's re-location from the supernatural realm to the empirical world, providing a re-evaluation not only of how we look back at the Enlightenment, but also of how we read today. |
Contents |
Introduction: Wonder and the rise of fiction -- Wonder in the age of enlightenment -- Rethinking the real with Robinson Crusoe and David Hume -- Suspending the reader in Tom Jones and The Castle of Otranto -- "Marvelous tales of wonders performed, or rather, not performed" in Baron Munchausen's Narrative -- "A little voyage of discovery?": fiction and the pursuit of knowledge -- Epilogue. |
Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
Subject |
English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.
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English fiction. |
Chronological Term |
18th century |
Subject |
Curiosities and wonders in literature.
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Curiosities and wonders in literature. |
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English fiction -- History and criticism -- 18th century.
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Chronological Term |
1700-1799 |
Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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Electronic book.
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Added Title |
18th-century fiction and the reinvention of wonder |
Other Form: |
Print version: Kareem, Sarah Tindal. Eighteenth-century fiction and the reinvention of wonder. First edition. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014 9780199689101 (DLC) 2014939134 (OCoLC)875151569 |
ISBN |
1322222738 (electronic book) |
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9781322222738 (electronic book) |
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9780191003127 (electronic book) |
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0191003123 (electronic book) |
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9780191802027 |
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0191802026 |
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9780199689101 (hardback) |
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0199689105 (hardback) |
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