Details:
Collaboratory Title:
The Authenticity of Emotions: Sceptical and Sympathetic
Sociability in the Eighteenth-Centure British Public
Sphere
Date:
Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th September 2012
Time:
9.00am - 4.00pm
Keynote Speakers:
Michael Frazer (Philosophy, Harvard
University)
W. Gerrod Parott (Psychology, Georgetown
University)
Laura J. Rosenthal (English University of
Maryland)
Conal Condren (Centre for the History of
European Discourses, University of Queensland)
Registration:
Please complete the registration
form and return to Janet Hart by 7th
September.
Collaboratory Flyer
Conceptualisation:
This interdisciplinary Collaboratory will discuss the public
sphere and emotional change in eighteenth-century Britain from the
perspective of literature, philosophical ideas, political and
religious debate, print culture and literary sociability. We are
especially interested in: literary and political controversies; the
rise and development of the novel; satire; contemporary ideas about
sentiment and the passions; and the shared culture of sensibility,
sociability and politeness. The principal aim of the meeting is to
consider the 'emotionalization' of eighteenth-century print culture
and its larger influence on contemporary public affairs via the
formation of communities - either public or self-selecting - of
sympathetic or sceptical readers. Indeed sympathy and the
communication of ideas and sentiments among the reading public(s)
are central to our interests.
The period under discussion is the 'long eighteenth century' (from
the late 1600s to the early 1800s) wherein changes of psychological
expression occurred alongside the development of wider and deeper
print cultures. Various social and artistic media served to channel
and contain fissile emotions while also providing scripts for
creating and communicating the sentiments. The Collaboratory is
designed to encourage a more general discussion about the cultural
and intellectual context of the eighteenth-century British public
sphere by looking more broadly at the growth of a print culture
which seems to exemplify Hume's (and other thinkers' and writers')
emphasis on sympathy and emotional communication. Among other
things it will be important to consider how - and how far -
communities were united by humorous but biting criticism, as well
as positive sympathy, and whether the balance between these
emotions can be seen to change over time. This is not to suggest
that there was no emotion in public discourse before 1700, but
rather to argue that the coincidence of burgeoning print culture
and an emphasis on feeling as the key to 'authentic' humanity may
have had an unprecedented impact on the style of public debates,
especially among a middle class readership.
The Organisers
David Lemmings, History, University of
Adelaide, and ARC Centre for the History of Emotions
Heather Kerr, English, University of Adelaide, and ARC
Centre for the History of Emotions
Robert Phiddian, English, Flinders University,
and ARC Centre for the History of Emotions
