Title: Strange Fits of Passion
First published: 1996
Description: This book contends that when late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century writers sought to explain the origins of emotions, they often discovered that their feelings may not really have been their own.

It explores the paradoxes of representing feelings in philosophy, aesthetic theory, gender ideology, literature, and popular sentimentality, and it argues that this period's obsession with sentimental, wayward emotion was inseparable from the dilemmas resulting from attempts to locate the origins of feelings in experience.

Making its argument through a provocative conjunction of texts that range across genres and genders and across the divide between the eighteenth century and romanticism, Strange Fits of Passion rediscovers the relationship of empiricism to the culture of sentimentality, and the significance of emotion to romanticism.
Subjects: Emotions (Philosophy), Emotions in literature, English literature, History, History and criticism, Knowledge, Literature, Poetic works, Psychological aspects, Psychological aspects of Literature, Psychology, Hume, david, 1711-1776, Radcliffe, ann ward, 1764-1823, Wordsworth, william, 1770-1850, Sonnets, English literature, history and criticism, 18th century, English literature, history and criticism, 19th century, Austen, jane, 1775-1817, Love in literature, Philosophy of passions, Knowledge and learning
People: Ann Ward Radcliffe (1764-1823), Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806), David Hume (1711-1776), Jane Austen (1775-1817), William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Time periods: 18th century, 19th century
LC classification: PR448.E46 P56 1996