Title: The civilized imagination
First published: 1985
Description: "The Civilized Imagination is a study of literature in a period of cultural change. As part of the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century a great transformation occurred in the relations among aesthetic theory, literature, and society. This study analyses such changes as they appear in the works of Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, and Sir Walter Scott, three apparently distinct novelists whom the author locates within a unified cultural movement. Although the works of these writers are extremely different in many respects, in Professor Cottom's view they are all preoccupied with the changing relation between aristocratic and middle-class values. In Ann Radcliffe's works middleclass values are beginning to emerge within a governing aristocratic context; in Jane Austen's novels these newer values are precariously balanced against the old; in Sir Walter Scott's books they have become victorious, at least superficially. Professor Cottorn examines the way these writers deal with such topics as taste, landscape, communications, morality, and women, in order to show how certain aesthetic problems result from social change." -- Publisher's information.
Subjects: Aesthetics, Aesthetics, British, British Aesthetics, English fiction, History, History and criticism, Literature and society, Social classes in literature, Austen, jane, 1775-1817, Radcliffe, ann ward, 1764-1823, Scott, walter, sir, 1771-1832, Great britain, history, 19th century, Esthétique, Roman anglais, Histoire et critique, Esthétique dans la littérature, Classes sociales dans la littérature, Littérature et société, Literatura Inglesa (Historia E Critica), Aesthetics in literature
Places: Great Britain
People: Ann Ward Radcliffe (1764-1823), Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Radcliffe, Jane Austen (1775-1817), Walter Scott Sir (1771-1832), Walter, Sir, 1771-1832 Scott
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PR778.A38 C68 1985