African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ReasonThe eighteenth century was a time of great cultural change in Britain. It was a period marked by expeditions to the New World, Africa, and the Orient, and these voyages were reflected in the travel literature of the era. It was also a period in which seventeenth-century empiricism and the scientific method became dominant, and in which society became increasingly secular. Fundamental to the eighteenth-century worldview was the notion of the Great Chain of Being, in which all creatures and their Creator stood in a hierarchical relationship with one another. The years from 1660 to 1833 witnessed both Britain's participation in slavery and the appropriation of the Great Chain of Being by social anthropologists and political leaders. With the rise of the slave trade, blacks were brought to Britain against their will, where they were enslaved. At the same time, intellectuals of the period tried to place these slaves within the hierarchical frame provided by the Great Chain of Being. |
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... character prototype in Memoirs of Mr. Blenfield a particular proclivity for long discussions with his acquaintances on sensibility . Like Sancho , the character Shirna Cambo believes sensibility to be the link in the chain of humanity ...
... character was positivized but that the positive standard for humanity was purged of a so - called African likeness . These stories have long been exam- ined by scholars who charge that they reinforce racism through cultural relativism ...
... character . Swift's portrait of human nature , or at least of the individual's moral character at its worst , shares striking affinities with consistent representations of blacks in earlier examples of English fiction . As I have said ...
Contents
Enlightenment Humanism | 1 |
Perspectives on a Theological Chain | 31 |
Conclusion | 149 |
Copyright | |
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African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ... Helena Woodard No preview available - 1999 |