John Doran’s characterization of Elizabeth Montagu aptly ref lects her multifaceted and versati... more John Doran’s characterization of Elizabeth Montagu aptly ref lects her multifaceted and versatile role in eighteenth-century society. Montagu was and still is known as a prominent author, critic, patron, businesswoman, and salonnière. Through birth, friendship, and marriage she was part of and, at times, the center of important political, literary, and social crosscutting networks that connected the public sphere and the court. She corresponded extensively with leaders of British Enlightenment coteries, such as Edmund Burke, Gilbert West, David Garrick, and Horace Walpole, as well as the Bluestocking inner circle—Elizabeth Carter, Sarah Scott, Hannah More, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Frances Burney, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Elizabeth Vesey, and Frances Boscawen. Her vast correspondence (ca. 8,000 extant letters) is now collected in various archives and private collections across the U.K. and the United States; only a few of these have been printed, often in heavily edited versions.2 With such wealth of epistolary material, it is not surprising that her letters
Owing to the enormous quantity of letters undated, the sorting has been terribly difficult, and I... more Owing to the enormous quantity of letters undated, the sorting has been terribly difficult, and I spent one entire winter in making up bundles and labelling each year. My grandfather made a variety of mistakes as to the dates of the letters. I hope I have atoned for some of his deficiencies, though a few mistakes are probably inevitable. He nearly blinded himself by working at night, and my grandmother had constantly to copy the letters in a large round hand to enable him to make them out. 2 Emily Climenson's description of her laborious task of compiling an edition of her great-great-aunt Elizabeth Montagu's correspondence surely resonates with everyone who has ever worked in archives to transcribe and order manuscript letters. Climenson was realistic about her task; she knew that many dates would remain provisional, that several letters to and by Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800) would have vanished, and thus any edition would be incomplete and contain errors. But she was buoyed by the realization that the vast number that had remained made 'the collection unique' (Figure 12.1). 3 That remains the case. The Montagu papers have been described by Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg as 'among the most important surviving collections from the eighteenth century'. 4 Climenson, like her grandfather, merely culled selected passages for publication and framed them with a biographical narrative. She died before the task was completed and her friend, the historian Reginald Blunt, felt duty-bound to bring it to a conclusion after her death. Extracts from only about a third of the letters had been published. 5 The sheer volume of the correspondence, the fact that two-thirds is in the Huntington Library, California, and the lack of a chronological inventory, prevented a scholarly print edition of the entire collection ever being contemplated by modern scholars. Today, digital technology makes it not only feasible but also even perfectible-for it could be added to and corrected as new letters and information become available. The digital edition of Elizabeth Montagu's letters will be fully searchable and provide a complete chronological listing of the letters. Its interface and customizable tools will provide a useful research and reading experience by displaying critical notes and variants alongside the facsimile and transcription. 6 This major new resource will generate more research in literature, history, art and architecture, theatre, philosophy, economics, politics and women's history. However, a huge investment of time, money and expertise will be needed to bring it about. This essay will reflect upon our reverence for such archival sources, and face up to the practical realities that digital editing of them imposes. The first question to ask is whether the source material is important enough to warrant the scholarly effort required. In spite of the love of gadding, I shall be brought to confess that at home, with an inexhaustible ink bottle, an indefatigable pen, and an unlimited sheet of paper, I have the means of the greatest happiness your absence will allow, the young Elizabeth wrote to her friend the Duchess of Portland. 7 It was once assumed that the missives of the 'queen of the Blue-stockings' merely illustrated the frivolous social life of the upper classes. Actually, from her teens until her eighties, Montagu devoted part of every day to composing business letters to the managers of her coal mines and estates and the architects, landscape and interior designers of her mansions; witty epistles to fellow female intellectuals and authors she patronized; or nuanced missives pursuing her political and religious interests within powerful dynastic circles. Montagu corresponded extensively with leaders of British Enlightenment coteries, such as Edmund Burke, Gilbert West, David Garrick and Horace Walpole, as well as the Bluestocking inner circle-Elizabeth Carter,
In her correspondences and works, which featured England and Germany, Germaine de Staël displayed... more In her correspondences and works, which featured England and Germany, Germaine de Staël displayed complex and contradictory feelings towards the two countries that she respected, if not admired. On the one hand, she praised the English political system (though she was hazy on the differences between England and Scotland and the United Kingdom), free speech, tolerance and literary achievements3. On the other hand, she commended the German « republic of letters » and its philosophy and literature that made up for the « inconveniences » of the German fractured political landscape and provincialism : « Les Allemands ont su se créer une république des lettres animée et indépendante4 ». Before de Staël visited Weimar in 1803, she had already developed a transnational interest in her writings where the cultural-literary and the socio-political overlapped. In À quels signes peut-on reconnaître quelle est l'opinion de la majorité de la nation ? (1791) and De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations (1796), she explored-at slightly different yet important junctures of French politics-the relationship between government and nation, between state and the people, and the possibility of a good government to respect and negotiate the passions of the people5. Her De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800) argued for correlation between literary and cultural production of nations and their socio-political and historical contexts, that is, again, the relationship between government and cultural nation. Both interests were interlinked and referenced European political and philosophical ideas, highlighting the (European) interdependence of literature and philosophy6. Her De l'Allemagne which she compiled whilst in Weimar, was more than a tapping into existing German debates by Jacob Friedrich Bielfeld's, Progrès des Allemands dans les sciences, les belles-lettres et les arts, particulièrement dans la poésie, l'éloquence et le théâtre (1752) or Frederick II's De la Littérature Allemande ; des défauts qu'on peut lui reprocher ; quelles en sont les causes ; et par quels moyens on peut les corriger
I have to go to market and provide for the family, to look after the servants, to help in taking ... more I have to go to market and provide for the family, to look after the servants, to help in taking care of you children, and in teaching you, to see that your clothes are in proper condition, and assist in making and mending for myself, and you, and your papa. All this is my necessary duty; and besides this, I must go out a visiting to keep up our acquaintance; this I call partly business, and partly amusement. […] Now a great many of these employments do not belong to Lady Wealthy, or Mrs. Rich, who keep housekeepers and governesses, and servants of all kinds, to do every thing for them. It is very proper, therefore, for them to pay more attention to music, drawing, ornamental work, and any other elegant manner of passing their time, and making themselves agreeable.1 This extract from John Aikin and Anna Barbauld's 'Dialogue, on Things to be learned' (1792) highlights two crucial aspects of women's work in the eighteenth century.2 Mamma explains to her daughter Kitty both the gendered division of labour for the middling 1 John Aiking and Anna Letitia Barbauld, 'Dialogue, on Things to be learned', Evenings at home; or, the juvenile budget opened: Consisting of a variety of miscellaneous pieces (London : printed for J.
The Longo maï cooperative network (http://www.prolongomai.ch) was founded in 1973, inspired by th... more The Longo maï cooperative network (http://www.prolongomai.ch) was founded in 1973, inspired by the events of the May 1968 student revolutions across Europe. A group of Spartakus students from Austria and Switzerland met in December 1972 in Basel, Switzerland, in an “I nternational Congress for the Education of European Youth” (Internationaler Kongress zur Bildung Europäischer Jugendgemeinschaften). Inspired by the revolt of May 1968 and a general malaise concerning the state of the world, the group of sixteento twenty-four-year-old activists managed to acquire derelict agricultural land in Limans and Forcalquier, near Avignon, to found an agrarian cooperative. This was the beginning of a whole network of self-governed cooperative farms and intentional communities, particularly aimed at rural communities in decline. Self-sufficiency, biodiversity, upskilling, interpersonal networks, and the reclaiming of land vulnerable to rural land speculation were its leading principles. Each coop...
This chapter traces the problem of evil in utopia from Thomas More to the Marquis de Sade. Utopia... more This chapter traces the problem of evil in utopia from Thomas More to the Marquis de Sade. Utopian thought recognizes human imperfection and the basic dualism in human nature. Utopias are discourses on human nature and the possibility of a better human society rather than simply blueprints of perfection, indeed they imagine 'an imperfect utopia, or, differently put, a utopia suited for imperfect creatures.' The question that arises in utopian thought is not if evil exists but how to deliver us from evil. *** Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of mankind is man (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man) One of the primary preoccupations of utopian thought is the relationship between the individual and society. Thus, 'to know thyself', including one's propensity for good and evil and to study 'mankind' is the necessary foundation for utopian thinking and a continuous process towards better statesmanship: Once he [the human being] has grasped himself and established what is his, without expropriation and alienation, in real democracy, there
The conversation parties of the bluestockings, held to debate contemporary ideas in eighteenth-ce... more The conversation parties of the bluestockings, held to debate contemporary ideas in eighteenth-century Britain, were vital in encouraging female artistic achievement. The bluestockings promoted links between learning and virtue in the public imagination, inventing a new kind of informal sociability that combined the life of the senses with that of the mind. This collection of essays, by leading scholars in the fields of literature, history and art history, provides an interdisciplinary treatment of bluestocking culture in eighteenth-century Britain. It is the first academic volume to concentrate on the rich visual and material culture that surrounded and supported the bluestocking project, from formal portraits and sculptures to commercially reproduced prints. By the early twentieth century, the term 'bluestocking' came to signify a dull and dowdy intellectual woman, but the original bluestockings inhabited a world in which brilliance was valued at every level and women were...
... 2 Utopian Exchanges: Negotiating Difference in Utopia 17 Lee Cullen Khanna 3 A Fragile Utopia... more ... 2 Utopian Exchanges: Negotiating Difference in Utopia 17 Lee Cullen Khanna 3 A Fragile Utopia of Sensibility: David Simple 39 Joseph F. Bartolomeo 4 Gothic Utopia: Heretical Sanctuary in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian 53 Brenda Tooley 5 Rewriting Rousseau: Isabelle de ...
Ulrich Beck, in his article, "Climate for Change" of 2010, suggested that in the face of "climate... more Ulrich Beck, in his article, "Climate for Change" of 2010, suggested that in the face of "climate breakdown" (George Monbiot), "something historically new can emerge, namely a cosmopolitan vision in which people see themselves … as part of an endangered world …". is paper will re ect on the possibility and impossibility of utopianism in the Anthropocene and ask the question if utopia is possible in the Anthropocene? It will take into consideration recent debates around utopia and the Anthropocene and look at four literary examples from Germany, Norway, England and the US.
This article reviews critical scholarship on eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism over the l... more This article reviews critical scholarship on eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism over the last ten years. It suggests that, in the light of current debates about Enlightenment discourses, eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism reflect accurately the multitude of discourses on gender, sexuality, colonialism and politics that make the Enlightenment so contentious. When philosophers start talking like architects, get out while you can, chaos is coming. When they start laying down rules for beauty, blood in the streets is from that moment inevitable. When reason and measurement are made authorities for the perfect society, seek sanctuary among the cannibals. .. Because the answer is not out there like America waiting for Columbus, the same answer for everybody for ever. The universal idea speaks through humanity itself, and differently through each nation in each stage of its history.
... itself but to very specific sections within the house: to the nursery, the chapel, the great ... more ... itself but to very specific sections within the house: to the nursery, the chapel, the great chamber,their own bedrooms, closets, the garden and the ... 10 WOMEN, SPACE AND UTOPIA 1600-1800 show in the course of this study, this gender differentiation was articulated ...
John Doran’s characterization of Elizabeth Montagu aptly ref lects her multifaceted and versati... more John Doran’s characterization of Elizabeth Montagu aptly ref lects her multifaceted and versatile role in eighteenth-century society. Montagu was and still is known as a prominent author, critic, patron, businesswoman, and salonnière. Through birth, friendship, and marriage she was part of and, at times, the center of important political, literary, and social crosscutting networks that connected the public sphere and the court. She corresponded extensively with leaders of British Enlightenment coteries, such as Edmund Burke, Gilbert West, David Garrick, and Horace Walpole, as well as the Bluestocking inner circle—Elizabeth Carter, Sarah Scott, Hannah More, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Frances Burney, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Elizabeth Vesey, and Frances Boscawen. Her vast correspondence (ca. 8,000 extant letters) is now collected in various archives and private collections across the U.K. and the United States; only a few of these have been printed, often in heavily edited versions.2 With such wealth of epistolary material, it is not surprising that her letters
Owing to the enormous quantity of letters undated, the sorting has been terribly difficult, and I... more Owing to the enormous quantity of letters undated, the sorting has been terribly difficult, and I spent one entire winter in making up bundles and labelling each year. My grandfather made a variety of mistakes as to the dates of the letters. I hope I have atoned for some of his deficiencies, though a few mistakes are probably inevitable. He nearly blinded himself by working at night, and my grandmother had constantly to copy the letters in a large round hand to enable him to make them out. 2 Emily Climenson's description of her laborious task of compiling an edition of her great-great-aunt Elizabeth Montagu's correspondence surely resonates with everyone who has ever worked in archives to transcribe and order manuscript letters. Climenson was realistic about her task; she knew that many dates would remain provisional, that several letters to and by Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800) would have vanished, and thus any edition would be incomplete and contain errors. But she was buoyed by the realization that the vast number that had remained made 'the collection unique' (Figure 12.1). 3 That remains the case. The Montagu papers have been described by Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg as 'among the most important surviving collections from the eighteenth century'. 4 Climenson, like her grandfather, merely culled selected passages for publication and framed them with a biographical narrative. She died before the task was completed and her friend, the historian Reginald Blunt, felt duty-bound to bring it to a conclusion after her death. Extracts from only about a third of the letters had been published. 5 The sheer volume of the correspondence, the fact that two-thirds is in the Huntington Library, California, and the lack of a chronological inventory, prevented a scholarly print edition of the entire collection ever being contemplated by modern scholars. Today, digital technology makes it not only feasible but also even perfectible-for it could be added to and corrected as new letters and information become available. The digital edition of Elizabeth Montagu's letters will be fully searchable and provide a complete chronological listing of the letters. Its interface and customizable tools will provide a useful research and reading experience by displaying critical notes and variants alongside the facsimile and transcription. 6 This major new resource will generate more research in literature, history, art and architecture, theatre, philosophy, economics, politics and women's history. However, a huge investment of time, money and expertise will be needed to bring it about. This essay will reflect upon our reverence for such archival sources, and face up to the practical realities that digital editing of them imposes. The first question to ask is whether the source material is important enough to warrant the scholarly effort required. In spite of the love of gadding, I shall be brought to confess that at home, with an inexhaustible ink bottle, an indefatigable pen, and an unlimited sheet of paper, I have the means of the greatest happiness your absence will allow, the young Elizabeth wrote to her friend the Duchess of Portland. 7 It was once assumed that the missives of the 'queen of the Blue-stockings' merely illustrated the frivolous social life of the upper classes. Actually, from her teens until her eighties, Montagu devoted part of every day to composing business letters to the managers of her coal mines and estates and the architects, landscape and interior designers of her mansions; witty epistles to fellow female intellectuals and authors she patronized; or nuanced missives pursuing her political and religious interests within powerful dynastic circles. Montagu corresponded extensively with leaders of British Enlightenment coteries, such as Edmund Burke, Gilbert West, David Garrick and Horace Walpole, as well as the Bluestocking inner circle-Elizabeth Carter,
In her correspondences and works, which featured England and Germany, Germaine de Staël displayed... more In her correspondences and works, which featured England and Germany, Germaine de Staël displayed complex and contradictory feelings towards the two countries that she respected, if not admired. On the one hand, she praised the English political system (though she was hazy on the differences between England and Scotland and the United Kingdom), free speech, tolerance and literary achievements3. On the other hand, she commended the German « republic of letters » and its philosophy and literature that made up for the « inconveniences » of the German fractured political landscape and provincialism : « Les Allemands ont su se créer une république des lettres animée et indépendante4 ». Before de Staël visited Weimar in 1803, she had already developed a transnational interest in her writings where the cultural-literary and the socio-political overlapped. In À quels signes peut-on reconnaître quelle est l'opinion de la majorité de la nation ? (1791) and De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations (1796), she explored-at slightly different yet important junctures of French politics-the relationship between government and nation, between state and the people, and the possibility of a good government to respect and negotiate the passions of the people5. Her De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800) argued for correlation between literary and cultural production of nations and their socio-political and historical contexts, that is, again, the relationship between government and cultural nation. Both interests were interlinked and referenced European political and philosophical ideas, highlighting the (European) interdependence of literature and philosophy6. Her De l'Allemagne which she compiled whilst in Weimar, was more than a tapping into existing German debates by Jacob Friedrich Bielfeld's, Progrès des Allemands dans les sciences, les belles-lettres et les arts, particulièrement dans la poésie, l'éloquence et le théâtre (1752) or Frederick II's De la Littérature Allemande ; des défauts qu'on peut lui reprocher ; quelles en sont les causes ; et par quels moyens on peut les corriger
I have to go to market and provide for the family, to look after the servants, to help in taking ... more I have to go to market and provide for the family, to look after the servants, to help in taking care of you children, and in teaching you, to see that your clothes are in proper condition, and assist in making and mending for myself, and you, and your papa. All this is my necessary duty; and besides this, I must go out a visiting to keep up our acquaintance; this I call partly business, and partly amusement. […] Now a great many of these employments do not belong to Lady Wealthy, or Mrs. Rich, who keep housekeepers and governesses, and servants of all kinds, to do every thing for them. It is very proper, therefore, for them to pay more attention to music, drawing, ornamental work, and any other elegant manner of passing their time, and making themselves agreeable.1 This extract from John Aikin and Anna Barbauld's 'Dialogue, on Things to be learned' (1792) highlights two crucial aspects of women's work in the eighteenth century.2 Mamma explains to her daughter Kitty both the gendered division of labour for the middling 1 John Aiking and Anna Letitia Barbauld, 'Dialogue, on Things to be learned', Evenings at home; or, the juvenile budget opened: Consisting of a variety of miscellaneous pieces (London : printed for J.
The Longo maï cooperative network (http://www.prolongomai.ch) was founded in 1973, inspired by th... more The Longo maï cooperative network (http://www.prolongomai.ch) was founded in 1973, inspired by the events of the May 1968 student revolutions across Europe. A group of Spartakus students from Austria and Switzerland met in December 1972 in Basel, Switzerland, in an “I nternational Congress for the Education of European Youth” (Internationaler Kongress zur Bildung Europäischer Jugendgemeinschaften). Inspired by the revolt of May 1968 and a general malaise concerning the state of the world, the group of sixteento twenty-four-year-old activists managed to acquire derelict agricultural land in Limans and Forcalquier, near Avignon, to found an agrarian cooperative. This was the beginning of a whole network of self-governed cooperative farms and intentional communities, particularly aimed at rural communities in decline. Self-sufficiency, biodiversity, upskilling, interpersonal networks, and the reclaiming of land vulnerable to rural land speculation were its leading principles. Each coop...
This chapter traces the problem of evil in utopia from Thomas More to the Marquis de Sade. Utopia... more This chapter traces the problem of evil in utopia from Thomas More to the Marquis de Sade. Utopian thought recognizes human imperfection and the basic dualism in human nature. Utopias are discourses on human nature and the possibility of a better human society rather than simply blueprints of perfection, indeed they imagine 'an imperfect utopia, or, differently put, a utopia suited for imperfect creatures.' The question that arises in utopian thought is not if evil exists but how to deliver us from evil. *** Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of mankind is man (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man) One of the primary preoccupations of utopian thought is the relationship between the individual and society. Thus, 'to know thyself', including one's propensity for good and evil and to study 'mankind' is the necessary foundation for utopian thinking and a continuous process towards better statesmanship: Once he [the human being] has grasped himself and established what is his, without expropriation and alienation, in real democracy, there
The conversation parties of the bluestockings, held to debate contemporary ideas in eighteenth-ce... more The conversation parties of the bluestockings, held to debate contemporary ideas in eighteenth-century Britain, were vital in encouraging female artistic achievement. The bluestockings promoted links between learning and virtue in the public imagination, inventing a new kind of informal sociability that combined the life of the senses with that of the mind. This collection of essays, by leading scholars in the fields of literature, history and art history, provides an interdisciplinary treatment of bluestocking culture in eighteenth-century Britain. It is the first academic volume to concentrate on the rich visual and material culture that surrounded and supported the bluestocking project, from formal portraits and sculptures to commercially reproduced prints. By the early twentieth century, the term 'bluestocking' came to signify a dull and dowdy intellectual woman, but the original bluestockings inhabited a world in which brilliance was valued at every level and women were...
... 2 Utopian Exchanges: Negotiating Difference in Utopia 17 Lee Cullen Khanna 3 A Fragile Utopia... more ... 2 Utopian Exchanges: Negotiating Difference in Utopia 17 Lee Cullen Khanna 3 A Fragile Utopia of Sensibility: David Simple 39 Joseph F. Bartolomeo 4 Gothic Utopia: Heretical Sanctuary in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian 53 Brenda Tooley 5 Rewriting Rousseau: Isabelle de ...
Ulrich Beck, in his article, "Climate for Change" of 2010, suggested that in the face of "climate... more Ulrich Beck, in his article, "Climate for Change" of 2010, suggested that in the face of "climate breakdown" (George Monbiot), "something historically new can emerge, namely a cosmopolitan vision in which people see themselves … as part of an endangered world …". is paper will re ect on the possibility and impossibility of utopianism in the Anthropocene and ask the question if utopia is possible in the Anthropocene? It will take into consideration recent debates around utopia and the Anthropocene and look at four literary examples from Germany, Norway, England and the US.
This article reviews critical scholarship on eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism over the l... more This article reviews critical scholarship on eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism over the last ten years. It suggests that, in the light of current debates about Enlightenment discourses, eighteenth-century utopias and utopianism reflect accurately the multitude of discourses on gender, sexuality, colonialism and politics that make the Enlightenment so contentious. When philosophers start talking like architects, get out while you can, chaos is coming. When they start laying down rules for beauty, blood in the streets is from that moment inevitable. When reason and measurement are made authorities for the perfect society, seek sanctuary among the cannibals. .. Because the answer is not out there like America waiting for Columbus, the same answer for everybody for ever. The universal idea speaks through humanity itself, and differently through each nation in each stage of its history.
... itself but to very specific sections within the house: to the nursery, the chapel, the great ... more ... itself but to very specific sections within the house: to the nursery, the chapel, the great chamber,their own bedrooms, closets, the garden and the ... 10 WOMEN, SPACE AND UTOPIA 1600-1800 show in the course of this study, this gender differentiation was articulated ...
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