Ancient questions about the causes and nature of pleasure were revived in the eighteenth century with a new consideration of its ethical and political significance. Rowan Boyson reminds us that philosophers of the Enlightenment, unlike modern thinkers, often represented pleasure as shared rather than selfish, and she focuses particularly on this approach to the philosophy and theory of pleasure. Through close reading of Enlightenment and Romantic texts, in particular the poetry and prose of William Wordsworth, Boyson elaborates on this central theme. Covering a wide range of texts by philosophers, theorists and creative writers from over the centuries, she presents a strong defence of the Enlightenment ideal of pleasure, drawing out its rich political, as well as intellectual and aesthetic, implications.
• Proposes a new view of pleasure in the eighteenth century • Offers original readings of Wordsworth's poetry and prose • Delivers an in-depth summary of philosophy and criticism on pleasure and happiness
Contents
Introduction; Part I. Pleasure Philosophy: 1. Shaftesbury, Kant and the sensus communis; 2. Rousseau, Wollstonecraft and pleasure as power; Part II. Wordsworth's Common Pleasure: 3. Poetics of pleasure in the Lyrical Ballads; 4. Economies of affect in The Prelude and Home at Grasmere; 5. The politics of happiness in The Excursion; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
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