Sensibility, reading and Illustration : spectacles and signs in Graffigny, Marivaux and Rousseau / Ann Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Ann Marie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grafigny, Mme de (Françoise d'Issembourg d'Happoncourt), 1695-1758--Criticism and interpretation.

Grafigny.

Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de, 1688-1763--Criticism and interpretation.

Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778--Criticism and interpretation.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.

Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de, 1688-1763.

Grafigny, Mme de (Françoise d'Issembourg d'Happoncourt), 1695-1758.

French fiction--18th century--History and criticism.

French fiction.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xvii, 291 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Legenda, 2009.

Summary:

Eighteenth-century sensibilitè has always been controversial. In fact, the term itself refers to complex forms of physical and emotional responsiveness, and Lewis's study investigates the fictional exploration of.various key problems of sentimental response. These are'analysed in conjunction with some of the actual (often emotional) reactions that the term, its fictions and images have provoked through time, including an indispensable survey of the varying construction of sensibilitè as an object of study.

Lewis provides a new reading of the theme of sensibility by analysing the 'textual images' in three best-selling novels from the mid-century; Graffigny's Lettres d'uue Pèruvienne, Marivaux's La Vie de Marianne and Rousseau's Julie. The examination of a largely neglected corpus of illustrations, understood as readings of each text, provides striking new evidence of the complexity, thematic richness and duplicity of these 'spectacles' and 'signs'.

Legenda is a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing. Titles range from medieval texts to contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern humanities.

Contents:

1 Critical Readings of Eighteenth-Century French 'Sensibility': Literary History and the History of a Word 14

I Sensibility in Literary History and Criticism: Constructions of a Category 14

II The Shifting Meanings of the Word Sensibilité in the Eighteenth Century 34

2 The Power of Images: Sensibility, Communication, and Aesthetic Experience in Graffigny's Lettres d'une Pèruvienne 50

3 Problems with the Passion of Pity, and Pitiful Passions: Love, Sex, and Sensibility in La Vie de Marianne 77

I Reading the Signs: La Vie de Marianne as a Novel of Sensibility? 78

II Pity, 'Love', and 'Lust': The Vocabulary of Sensibility and Libertinage 87

III The Passion of Pity and Pitiful Passions 89

IV Textual Images and Visual Readings: La Vie de Marianne and its Illustrations 112

4 (Re)Reading Sentimental Topoi, Scenes, and Spectacles in Julie 163

I Reading for the Part 165

II Narrative Causality: Forme et Signification 217

III Sequence and Subversion 225.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-283) and index.

ISBN:

9781905981960

1905981961

OCLC:

229032019