Synopses & Reviews
"Pithy and wide-ranging. . . . This study provides a fresh new lens through which to reinvestigate the whole of early modern English literature."and#8212;
Library JournalIn this striking social history, Barbara M. Benedict draws on the texts of the early modern period to discover the era's attitudes toward curiosity, a trait we learn was often depicted as an unsavory form of transgression or cultural ambition.
Synopsis
In this striking social history, Barbara M. Benedict draws on the texts of the early modern period to discover the era's attitudes toward curiosity, a trait we learn was often depicted as an unsavory form of transgression or cultural ambition.
Synopsis
"Pithy and wide-ranging. . . . This study provides a fresh new lens through which to reinvestigate the whole of early modern English literature."
Library JournalIn this striking social history, Barbara M. Benedict draws on the texts of the early modern period to discover the era's attitudes toward curiosity, a trait we learn was often depicted as an unsavory form of transgression or cultural ambition.
About the Author
Barbara M. Benedict is the Charles A. Dana Professor of English, and chair of the Department of English, at Trinity College, Connecticut. She is the author of Making the Modern Reader: Cultural Mediation in Early Modern Literary Anthologies and Framing Feeling: Sentiment and Style in English Prose Fiction, 1745-1800.
Table of Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION INSPECTING AND SPECTATING: MONSTERS,
RARITIES, AND INVESTIGATORS
CHAPTER ONE REGULATING CURIOSITY
The Discipline of Fraud
Curiosity as Second Sight
CHAPTER TWO CONSUMING CURIOSITY
Monstrous Modernity and Curious Art
The Curious Eye
CHAPTER THREE FROM THE CURIOUS TO THE CURIO
The Inquiry of Eve
Women as Closeted Curiosities
CHAPTER FOUR CONNOISSEURSHIP IN THE MENTAL CABINET
Curiosities of Artful Nature
Collecting Culture in the Printed Museum
CHAPTER FIVE PERFORMING CURIOSITY
The Curios Control of Nature
Curiosity as Social Reform
CONCLUSION TRANSGRESSION AND AMBITION
NOTES
INDEX