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Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics
Shaftesbury, Akenside, and the Discipline of the Imagination
Series: - Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 342
Author:
Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics: Shaftesbury, Akenside, and the Discipline of the Imagination offers a fresh perspective on the eighteenth-century poetics of Lord Shaftesbury and Mark Akenside. This book traces the two authorsâ debt to Roman Stoic spiritual exercises and early modern conceptions of the care of the self, which informs their view of the poetic imagination as a bundle of techniques designed to manage impressions, cultivate right images in the mind and rectify judgement. Alexandra Bacalu traces the roots of this articulation in early modern writings on the imagination, as well as in Restoration and Augustan debates on wit, exploring the fruitful tension between ideas of imaginative enthusiasm and imaginative regulation that it provokes.
Alexandra Bacalu, Ph.D (2020) is Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Bucharest, where she teaches eighteenth-century British literature and the history of the care of the self.
âAmong many other things, this book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the reception of Stoicism in the eighteenth century, reaffirming Shaftesburyâs place as a key figure in the Stoic tradition. It should also be of interest to anyone concerned with Stoicism and aesthetics."
John Sellars, Royal Holloway, University of London
"Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics brilliantly examines how a transition occurred from the disparagement of the imagination to its elevation. Most works miss this background to the eighteenth century, but the way in which Bacalu examines therapy, medical sources, spiritual exercises, and poetry, recovers hidden sources for disciplining some of the diseases of our own day. It is a work not to be missed!"
Michael Deckard, Lenoir-Rhyne University
John Sellars, Royal Holloway, University of London
"Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics brilliantly examines how a transition occurred from the disparagement of the imagination to its elevation. Most works miss this background to the eighteenth century, but the way in which Bacalu examines therapy, medical sources, spiritual exercises, and poetry, recovers hidden sources for disciplining some of the diseases of our own day. It is a work not to be missed!"
Michael Deckard, Lenoir-Rhyne University
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The Stoic Imagination
â1âSources and Genres
â2âImagination and Opinion
â3âEarly Modern Exercises for the Imagination
2 The Poetic Imagination
â1âSources and Genres
â2âDynamics of Wit and Judgement
â3âWit and Poetic Enthusiasm
3 Shaftesbury and the Discipline of the Fancies
â1âTrue Judgment and Ingenuity
â2âJudgement and Stoic Exercises
â3âSoliloquy and Imagination
â4âStoic Discipline and Reasonable Enthusiasm
4 Akenside and the Conduct of the Powers of Imagination
â1âStoic Ethics in The Pleasures of Imagination
â2âInvention and Stoic Exercises
â3âPleasure and Enthusiasm
â4âFamiliarity, Habit, and Association
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1 The Stoic Imagination
â1âSources and Genres
â2âImagination and Opinion
â3âEarly Modern Exercises for the Imagination
2 The Poetic Imagination
â1âSources and Genres
â2âDynamics of Wit and Judgement
â3âWit and Poetic Enthusiasm
3 Shaftesbury and the Discipline of the Fancies
â1âTrue Judgment and Ingenuity
â2âJudgement and Stoic Exercises
â3âSoliloquy and Imagination
â4âStoic Discipline and Reasonable Enthusiasm
4 Akenside and the Conduct of the Powers of Imagination
â1âStoic Ethics in The Pleasures of Imagination
â2âInvention and Stoic Exercises
â3âPleasure and Enthusiasm
â4âFamiliarity, Habit, and Association
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
This book is intended for scholars and students interested in historical conceptions of the imagination, ideas about poetry and criticism in the long eighteenth century, and the early modern history of therapeutic culture. Keywords: Stoicism, spiritual exercises, enthusiasm, regulation, Augustan period, poetry, care of the self, Enlightenment, early modern period, British, wit, Restoration, passions, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius.