Enlightenolatry from Peter Gay to Steven Pinker: Mass Marketing Enlightenment and the Thick Eighteenth Century

IF 0.1 3区 文学 Q4 Arts and Humanities
Al Coppola
{"title":"Enlightenolatry from Peter Gay to Steven Pinker: Mass Marketing Enlightenment and the Thick Eighteenth Century","authors":"Al Coppola","doi":"10.1353/ecy.2023.a906891","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Peter Gay's two-volume study, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (1966/69), won the National Book Award in 1966, where its tendentious version of the Enlightenment was embraced as a moderate, hopeful response to the radicalized public sphere of the 1960s. This essay argues that Gay's achievement, and the interdisciplinary seminar that he founded at Columbia University to develop it, provided a key impetus for the organization of the institutional study of eighteenth-century studies. Moreover, the constellation of ideas celebrated as the \"Enlightenment\" in Gay's work has provided an enduring template for twenty-first-century Enlightenolatrists like Steven Pinker, whose Enlightenment Now (2018) slavishly follows Gay's argument. The persistence of Gay's \"undead text,\" in the sense of Lorraine Daston and Sharon Marcus's phrase (2019), suggests an additional and troubling dimension to eighteenth-century studies beyond the \"wide\" and \"deep\" eighteenth centuries as theorized by Felicity Nussbaum (2003) and Joseph Roach (2007).","PeriodicalId":54033,"journal":{"name":"EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-THEORY AND INTERPRETATION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-THEORY AND INTERPRETATION","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecy.2023.a906891","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract: Peter Gay's two-volume study, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (1966/69), won the National Book Award in 1966, where its tendentious version of the Enlightenment was embraced as a moderate, hopeful response to the radicalized public sphere of the 1960s. This essay argues that Gay's achievement, and the interdisciplinary seminar that he founded at Columbia University to develop it, provided a key impetus for the organization of the institutional study of eighteenth-century studies. Moreover, the constellation of ideas celebrated as the "Enlightenment" in Gay's work has provided an enduring template for twenty-first-century Enlightenolatrists like Steven Pinker, whose Enlightenment Now (2018) slavishly follows Gay's argument. The persistence of Gay's "undead text," in the sense of Lorraine Daston and Sharon Marcus's phrase (2019), suggests an additional and troubling dimension to eighteenth-century studies beyond the "wide" and "deep" eighteenth centuries as theorized by Felicity Nussbaum (2003) and Joseph Roach (2007).
从彼得·盖伊到史蒂文·平克的启蒙主义:大众营销启蒙与厚重的十八世纪
摘要:彼得·盖伊(Peter Gay)的两卷本著作《启蒙:一种解释》(1966/69)获得了1966年的美国国家图书奖,该书对启蒙运动的倾向版本被视为对20世纪60年代激进公共领域的温和而充满希望的回应。本文认为,盖伊的成就,以及他在哥伦比亚大学为发展这一成就而创立的跨学科研讨会,为18世纪研究的机构研究组织提供了关键的推动力。此外,盖伊作品中被称为“启蒙”的一系列思想为21世纪的启蒙主义者提供了一个持久的模板,比如史蒂文·平克(Steven Pinker),他的《现在的启蒙》(Enlightenment Now, 2018)盲从了盖伊的观点。从洛林·达斯顿(Lorraine Daston)和莎伦·马库斯(Sharon Marcus)的短语(2019)的意义上来说,同性恋的“不死文本”的持续存在表明,在费利西蒂·努斯鲍姆(2003)和约瑟夫·罗奇(2007)所提出的“广泛”和“深刻”的18世纪理论之外,18世纪的研究还有一个额外的、令人不安的维度。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-THEORY AND INTERPRETATION
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-THEORY AND INTERPRETATION LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM-
自引率
0.00%
发文量
2
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信