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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Norton, Brian Michael, 1971-

Title Fiction and the philosophy of happiness : ethical inquiries in the Age of Enlightenment / Brian Michael Norton.

Publication Info. [Lewisburg, PA] : Bucknell University Press ; [2012]
Lanham, MD : Rowman and Littlefield Pub. Group, [2012]
©2012

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (viii, 159 pages
data file
Physical Medium polychrome
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents The moral in Phutatorius's breeches: stoicism, subjectivism, and the possibilities of happiness in Tristram Shandy -- "Vous croyez que le même bonheur est fait pour tous": ethics and singularity in Le neveu de Rameau -- Tragic eudaimonism: social contradictions and the problem of happiness in Rousseau"s Julie -- The politics of happiness: Caleb Williams, political justice, and the nature of human goods -- Rethinking autonomy: Emma Courtney, feminist ethics, and the question of independence -- Conclusion: the art of life in the Age of Enlightenment.
Summary "Explores the novel's participation in eighteenth-century 'inquiries after happiness, ' an ancient ethical project that acquired new urgency with the rise of subjective models of well-being in early modern and Enlightenment Europe. Combining archival research on treatises on happiness with illuminating readings of Samuel Johnson, Laurence Sterne, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, William Godwin and Mary Hays, Brian Michael Norton's innovative study asks us to see the novel itself as a key instrument of Enlightenment ethics. His central argument is that the novel form provided a uniquely valuable tool for thinking about the nature and challenges of modern happiness: whereas treatises sought to theorize the conditions that made happiness possible in general, eighteenth-century fiction excelled at interrogating the problem on the level of the particular, in the details of a single individual's psychology and unique circumstances."--Publisher description.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.
Fiction.
Chronological Term 18th century
Subject Happiness in literature.
Happiness in literature.
Enlightenment -- Europe.
Enlightenment.
Europe.
Chronological Term 1700-1799
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Added Author ProQuest (Firm)
Other Form: Print version: 9781611484304 1611484308 (DLC) 2012026693
ISBN 1611484308 cloth : alkaline paper
1611484316 ebook
9781611484304 cloth : alkaline paper
9781611484311 ebook