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Genre/Form: | Criticism, interpretation, etc History |
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Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Piper, William Bowman, 1927- Common courtesy in eighteenth-century English literature. Newark : University of Delaware Press ; London ; Cranbury, NJ : Associated University Presses, ©1997 (OCoLC)605217456 |
Material Type: | Government publication, State or province government publication |
Document Type: | Book |
All Authors / Contributors: |
William Bowman Piper |
ISBN: | 0874136458 9780874136456 |
OCLC Number: | 36726669 |
Description: | 200 pages ; 25 cm |
Responsibility: | William Bowman Piper. |
Abstract:
In one of his Idlers, Johnson indicated the problems involved in such an achievement as follows: "As a question becomes more complicated and involved, and extends to a greater number of relations, disagreement of opinion will always be multiplied: not because we are irrational, but because we are finite beings, furnished with different kinds of knowledge, exerting different degrees of attention, one discovering consequences which escape another, none taking in the whole concatenation of causes and effects, and most comprehending but a very small part, each comparing what he observes with a different criterion and each referring it to a different purpose. "Where, then, is the wonder, that they who see only a small part should judge erroneously of the whole?
Or that they, who see different and dissimilar parts, should judge differently from one another." Each of the two aspects of common sense, as suggested in this passage, focused unavoidable strains and challenges on conversational courtesy. Organizing many a small part of human experience to create an adequate tissue of knowledge challenged it in one way; resolving many individual disagreements to formulate a wider consensus challenged it in another.
This book is devoted to a study of this complex intellectual problem or, rather, to an exposition of the ways the greatest writers of this time confronted it and, indeed, solved it. Each of them grasped a special subject matter: Berkeley, for example, wished to espouse an "obvious but amazing" philosophy; Sterne wished to disclose a pitifully obscene private life. In Common Courtesy, the author describes the realm of courtesy each of them composed, a realm in which such subject matter could be made apprehensible to society. Readers of this book should ask, as they attend the author's analysis of each writer and each work: in discussing The Rambler, Tristram Shandy, and An Epistle to Dr.
Arbuthnot as essays in common courtesy, has the author been able to explain the individual sense of each one in turn and to show how its creator made this sense widely available and widely agreeable?
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Related Subjects:(31)
- English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism.
- Courtesy in literature.
- Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.
- Interpersonal relations in literature.
- Manners and customs in literature.
- Social interaction in literature.
- Community life in literature.
- Social ethics in literature.
- Common sense in literature.
- Littérature anglaise -- 18e siècle -- Histoire et critique.
- Littérature et société -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire -- 18e siècle.
- Relations humaines dans la littérature.
- Mœurs et coutumes dans la littérature.
- Interaction sociale dans la littérature.
- Communauté dans la littérature.
- Morale sociale dans la littérature.
- Sens commun dans la littérature.
- Savoir vivre dans la littérature.
- Interaction sociale -- Dans la littérature.
- Savoir-vivre -- Dans la littérature.
- Relations humaines -- Dans la littérature.
- Moeurs et coutumes -- Dans la littérature.
- Morale sociale -- Dans la littérature.
- Literatur.
- Höflichkeit.
- Geschichte 1700-1800.
- Höflichkeit (Motiv)
- Englisch.
- English literature.
- Literature and society.
- Great Britain.
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by lgteekell updated 2016-07-11