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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... context both to Enlightenment humanism and to the Chain's discursive legacy , he is the dominant focus of chapter 1. As Robert Markley observes , " I suspect , Pope - as poet , critic , translator of Homer , and editor of Shakes- peare ...
... context of the European Enlightenment . ( Edward Said , especially his observations on Dickens in Culture and ... contexts in literary investigations.22 But a poststructural- ist analysis of what Cornel West identifies as the ...
... Contexts ( New York : Harvester Wheatsheaf , 1990 ) , 1 . 27. Henry Louis Gates , Jr. , makes this observation in ... Context of English Literature , 1700-1789 ( London : Longman , 1986 ) . See also A. D. Nutall , Pope's ' Essay on ...
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 |