Passions, Sympathy and Print Culture ─ Public Opinion and Emotional Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain

This volume opens a dialogue between eighteenth-century passions and twenty-first century understandings of emotion, as revealed by psychological research into human emotions, and sociological studies of emotions and 'the media'. It unites literary scholars, historians, psychologists, and philosophers in an exploration of modes of community or expressions of self and feeling that surfaced in print culture during the decades between the 1690s and the 1780s. The individual essays explore ways in which 'authentic' passions came to be conceived and performed in a range of environments, from popular novels and the new journalism, through the philosophical studies of major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, to last words, aesthetics, and plastic surgery. The result is a book that offers fresh historical perspectives on sympathy and public opinion and also considers critically how collective emotions contributed to political stability and moral improvement.

David Lemmings is Professor of History at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and Leader of the Change Program in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. He has published widely on the history of crime, law and media in eighteenth-century Britain.

Heather Kerr is Senior Lecturer in the discipline of English and Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and an Associate Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre for the History of Emotions. She has published in the areas of early modern drama and poetry, law and literature, ecocriticism and contemporary cultural studies.

Robert Phiddian is Associate Professor of English and Deputy Dean of the School of Humanities at Flinders University, Australia. He is author of Swift's Parody (1995) and thirty other publications, principally on eighteenth-century literature and contemporary Australian political cartooning.