Overview

Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics: Shaftesbury, Akenside, and the Discipline of the Imagination offers a fresh perspective on the eighteenth-century poetics of Lord Shaftesbury and Mark Akenside. This book traces the two authors’ debt to Roman Stoic spiritual exercises and early modern conceptions of the care of the self, which informs their view of the poetic imagination as a bundle of techniques designed to manage impressions, cultivate right images in the mind and rectify judgement. Alexandra Bacalu traces the roots of this articulation in early modern writings on the imagination, as well as in Restoration and Augustan debates on wit, exploring the fruitful tension between ideas of imaginative enthusiasm and imaginative regulation that it provokes.

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9789004202832

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Reviews

"“Among many other things, this book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the reception of Stoicism in the eighteenth century, reaffirming Shaftesbury’s place as a key figure in the Stoic tradition. It should also be of interest to anyone concerned with Stoicism and aesthetics."" John Sellars, Royal Holloway, University of London ""Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics brilliantly examines how a transition occurred from the disparagement of the imagination to its elevation. Most works miss this background to the eighteenth century, but the way in which Bacalu examines therapy, medical sources, spiritual exercises, and poetry, recovers hidden sources for disciplining some of the diseases of our own day. It is a work not to be missed!"" Michael Deckard, Lenoir-Rhyne University"

Among many other things, this book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the reception of Stoicism in the eighteenth century, reaffirming Shaftesbury's place as a key figure in the Stoic tradition. It should also be of interest to anyone concerned with Stoicism and aesthetics. John Sellars, Royal Holloway, University of London Eighteenth-Century Stoic Poetics brilliantly examines how a transition occurred from the disparagement of the imagination to its elevation. Most works miss this background to the eighteenth century, but the way in which Bacalu examines therapy, medical sources, spiritual exercises, and poetry, recovers hidden sources for disciplining some of the diseases of our own day. It is a work not to be missed! Michael Deckard, Lenoir-Rhyne University

Author Information

Alexandra Bacalu, Ph.D (2020) is Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Bucharest, where she teaches eighteenth-century British literature and the history of the care of the self.

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