Description
Book SynopsisEnlightenment discourse is generally characterized by an over-identification with favorable aspects of the human psyche and the repression and projection of energies not circumscribed by its sense of selfhood. This psychic split is found in the Enlightenment's positioning of itself against various others - nature, the body, woman, wilderness, irrationality, affect, uncertainty, chaos, the exotic, and the nonwestern - configurations of which are central to eighteenth-century alterity. The Enlightenment, however, did not recognize the other as a psychic projection of itself. Such a realization would not take place until the emergence of Romanticism, a movement that served not as a repudiation of the proceding historical period, as some scholars have argued, but as Enlightenment's dialectical self-correction. Romanticism, as this study will demonstrate in Jungian terms, represents the beginnings of a complex, psychological resolution of the eighteenth century's collective doubting of itself.
Trade ReviewMoore's contextualization of his study with respect to existing criticism and coverage of various literary forms are perfectly satisfying... The chapters are somewhat brief, but never do they seem too cursory or under-developed. Quite the contrary, Moore's relative brevity is a testament to the conciseness of his writing. Because he explores the sole topic of opposing psychic forces in literature, Moores's approach could be repetitive, but he wisely refreshes his focus often by applying his interpretative method to a different literary work in each new chapter. * European Romantic Review *
