The Burdens of Perfection : On Ethics and Reading in Nineteenth-Century British Literature.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (278 pages)
Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Resisting, Conspiring, Completing: An Introduction -- Part I. The Narrative of Improvement -- 1. Skepticism and Perfectionism I: Mechanization and Desire -- 2. Skepticism and Perfectionism II: Weakness of Will -- Interlude: Critical Free Indirect Discourse -- 3. Reading Thoughts: Casuistry and Transfiguration -- Part II. The Moral Psychology of Improvement -- 4. Perfectly Helpless -- 5. Responsiveness, Knowingness, and John Henry Newman -- 6. The Knowledge of Shame -- 7. On Lives Unled -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
A study of moral perfectionism in nineteenth-century British culture, this book reads a wide range of essayists, poets, and novelists through the lens of ethics and philosophy of mind.
9780801460838
English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism. Didactic literature, English -- History and criticism. Perfection in literature. Ethics in literature. Literature and morals. Books and reading -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.