Thinking About Tears: Crying and Weeping in Long-Eighteenth-Century France

During France's long eighteenth century, a new aesthetic and ethical code emerged that focused on the intensification of emotions and the hyperbolic use of weeping. This period marked a crucial moment in the birth of the modern subject, as tears became an exemplary testing ground for investigations into the relations between physiology and psychology. Thinking About Tears explores how the link between tears and sensibility in this period helps shed light on the process through which the European emotional lexicon has been built, from viewing tears as governed by the sphere of passions and feelings to viewing crying as a matter of sensibility and sensiblerie. The volume examines a wide range of early modern philosophical, medical, religious, and literary texts to reveal another side to this period that has too often been saddled with the label of the age of reason.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The long eighteenth century in France, spanning approximately 1650 to 1820, was a pivotal era in the birth of the modern subject. During this time, a new aesthetic and ethical code emerged, centered around the heightened expression and excessive use of tears. The analysis of crying became an exemplary testing ground for investigations into the enigmatic connections between the realms of physiology and psychology.

Thinking About Tears delves into the intricate relationship between tears and sensibility during this period in France. It explores how the interplay between these two elements contributed to the construction of the European emotional lexicon. Initially, tears were perceived as governed by the sphere of passions and feelings, leading thinkers to view crying as primarily a matter of sensibility. Over time, this perspective shifted, presupposing an intimate connection with the category of sentiments.

This volume examines not only the actual emotion of crying but also the attempt to think about and explain this feeling. By drawing on a wide range of early modern philosophical, medical, religious, and literary texts, including moral treatises on the passions, medical textbooks, letters, life-writings, novels, and stage-plays, Thinking About Tears offers a fresh perspective on a period that has often been characterized as the age of reason. It reveals a more complex and nuanced side to this era, shedding light on the profound emotional experiences and philosophical inquiries that characterized it.

Weight: 656g
Dimension: 240 x 161 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192864277