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Informationen zum Autor By Tili Boon Cuillé and Karyna Szmurlo Klappentext Sensibility, or the capacity to feel, played a vital role in philosophical reflection about the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts in eighteenth-century France. Yet scholars have privileged the Marquis de Sade's vindication of physiological sensibility as the logical conclusion of Enlightenment over Germaine de Staël's exploration of moral sensibility's potential for reform and renewal that paved the way for Romanticism. This volume of essays showcases Staël's contribution to the "affective revolution" in Europe, investigating the personal and political circumstances that informed her theory of the passions and the social and aesthetic innovations to which it gave rise. Contributors move seamlessly between her political, philosophical, and fictional works, attentive to the relationship between emotion and cognition and aware of the coherence of her thought on an individual, national, and international scale. They first examine the significance Staël attributed to pity, happiness, melancholy, and enthusiasm in The Influence of the Passions as she witnessed revolutionary strife and envisioned the new republic. They then explore her development of a cosmopolitan aesthetic, in such works as On Literature, Corinne, or Italy, On Germany, and The Spirit of Translation, that transcended traditional generic, national, and linguistic boundaries. Finally, they turn to her contributions to the visual and musical arts as she deftly negotiated the transition from a Neoclassical to a Romantic aesthetic. Staël's Philosophy of the Passions concludes that, rather than founding a republic based on the rights of man, Staël's reflection fostered international communities of women (artists, models, and collectors; authors, performers, and spectators), enabling them to participate in the re-articulation of sociocultural values in the wake of the French Revolution.Contributors: Tili Boon Cuillé, Catherine Dubeau, Nanette Le Coat, Christine Dunn Henderson, Karen de Bruin, M. Ione Crummy, Jennifer Law-Sullivan, Lauren Fortner Ravalico, C. C. Wharram, Kari Lokke, Susan Tenenbaum, Mary D. Sheriff, Heather Belnap Jensen, Fabienne Moore, Julia Effertz Zusammenfassung This volume examines the philosophical, political, and personal convictions that informed Staël’s theory of the passions and the social and aesthetic innovations to which it gave rise. Moving from her affective theory to her literary practice, we explore Staël’s transformative influence on the communities of women artists she fostered. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Setting the StageTili Boon CuilléPart I. The Politics of the Passions1. The Mother, the Daughter, and the Passions Catherine Dubeau, translated by Sylvie Romanowski2. The Virtuous "Passion": The Politics of Pity in Staël's The Influence of the PassionsNanette Le Coat3. Passions, Politics, and Literature: The Quest for Happiness Christine Dunn Henderson4. Melancholy in the Pursuit of Happiness: Corinne and the Femme Supérieure Karen de BruinPart II. International Aesthetics5. The Peripheral Heroine Takes Center Stage: From Owenson's National Tale to Staël's European Genre M. Ione Crummy6. Ethnography and Autoethnography in Corinne ou l'Italie Jennifer Law-Sullivan7. Liquid Union: Listening through Tears and the Creation of Community in Corinne Lauren Fortner Ravalico8. Aeolian Translation: The Aesthetics of Mediation and the Jouissance of Genre C.C. Wharram9. British Legacies of Corinne and the Commercialization of Enthusiasm Kari LokkePart III. Philosophy and the Arts10. The Power to Corrupt: A Staëlian Perspective on the Fine ArtsSusan Tenenbaum11. The Many Faces of Germaine de StaëlMary D. Sheriff12. Staël, Corinne, and the Women Collectors of Napoleonic Europe Heather Belnap Jensen13. Germaine de Staël Defines Romanticism, or the...
