Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion

Stoic philosophers and Romantic writers have little in common, but Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion explores how Romantic-era writers devoted a surprising amount of attention to Stoicism and its dispassionate mandate. It argues that Stoicism was a central preoccupation in a world destabilized by the French Revolution and became the subject of poetic reflection, ethical inquiry, and political debate.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Stoic philosophers and Romantic writers may appear to have little in common: the ancient Stoics advocated for the elimination of emotion, while Romantic writers made a forceful new argument for expression, embracing "powerful feeling" as the cornerstone of poetry. Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion challenges this notion by demonstrating that Romantic-era writers paid a surprising amount of attention to Stoicism and its dispassionate mandate. Jacob Risinger delves into the hidden but essential life of Stoic philosophy in British and American Romanticism, from William Wordsworth to Ralph Waldo Emerson. He demonstrates that the Romantic era, which was most passionately invested in emotion as the primary source of art, was also captivated by the Stoic idea that aesthetic and ethical judgment required the transcendence of emotion. Risinger argues that Stoicism was a central preoccupation in a world destabilized by the French Revolution. By creating a space for the skeptical evaluation of feeling and affect, Stoicism became the subject of poetic reflection, ethical inquiry, and political debate. Risinger examines Wordsworth's affinity with William Godwin's evolving philosophy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's attempt to embed Stoic reflection within the lyric itself, Lord Byron's depiction of Stoicism at the level of character, visions of a Stoic future in novels by Mary Shelley and Sarah Scott, and the Stoic foundations of Emersons arguments for self-reliance and social reform. Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion illustrates how the austerity of ancient philosophy was not inimical to Romantic creativity but vital to its realization.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691223124