Peripheries of the Enlightenment: (2008:01 Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment)

‘Enlightenment’ is a universal concept, but its meaning is most clearly revealed by seeing how it was engaged with, reconfigured or rejected, on a local level. Peripheries of the Enlightenment seeks to rethink the ‘centre/periphery’ model, and to consider the Enlightenment as a more widely spread movement with national, regional and local varieties, focusing on activity as much as ideas. The debate is introduced by two chapters which explore the notion of periphery from vantage points at the very heart of ‘enlightened’ Europe: Ferney and Geneva. Through thirteen ensuing chapters, the interaction between ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘periphery’ is explored in a variety of spatial and temporal contexts ranging from Mexico to Russia. Drawing on urban and provincial as well as national case studies, contributors argue that we can learn at least as much about the Enlightenment from commentators at the geographical and cultural borders of the ‘enlightened’ world as from its most radical theorists in its early epicentres. Crossing the boundaries between histories of literature, religion, science and political and economic thought, Peripheries of the Enlightenment is not only international in its outlook but also interdisciplinary in its scope, and offers readers a new and more global vision of the Enlightenment.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Richard Butterwick, Peripheries of the Enlightenment: an introduction Simon Davies, Whither/wither France: Voltaire’s view from Ferney Graham Gargett, French periphery, European centre: eighteenth-century Geneva and its contribution to the Enlightenment Michael Brown, Was there an Irish Enlightenment? The case of the Anglicans John Robertson, Political economy and the ‘feudal system’ in Enlightenment Naples: outline of a problem Marie-Christine Skuncke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Swedish eyes around 1760 Orsolya Szakály, Enlightened self-interest: the development of an entrepreneurial culture within the Hungarian elite Martin Fitzpatrick, The view from Mount Pleasant: Enlightenment in late eighteenth-century Liverpool Simon Burrows, Grub Street revolutionaries: marginal writers at the Enlightenment’s periphery? Ultán Gillen, Varieties of Enlightenment: the Enlightenment and Irish political culture in the age of revolutions Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa, An ilustrado in his province: Jovellanos in Asturias Richard Butterwick, Between Anti-Enlightenment and enlightened Catholicism: provincial preachers in late eighteenth-century Poland-Lithuania Simon Dixon, 'Prosveshchenie’: Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Russia Fiona Clark, The Gazeta de Literatura de México and the edge of reason: when is a periphery not a periphery? Lynda Pratt, Tea and national history? Ann Yearsley, John Thelwall and the late eighteenth-century provincial English epic Peter Hanns Reill, The Enlightenment from the German periphery: Johann Herder’s reinterpretation of the Enlightenment Summaries Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Simon Davies was formerly Professor of Enlightenment Studies and the founding Director of the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the assistant Director of the correspondence of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (Electronic Enlightenment) and the general editor of two volumes of Bernardin’s Complete Works (Garnier).

Review :
'The strength of this book lies in the excellent quality of the individual studies and in the diversity of the experiences of the Enlightenment which it offers, stripping away the barriers created by linguistic, political and cultural divisions.' Eighteenth-century Ireland '[…] this is a rich and thought-provoking collection. Butterwick’s hope that he can ‘persuade dix-huitiémistes that study of the peripheries of the Enlightenment yields insights into the movement as a whole’ (p.16) is well founded.' Slavonic and East European Review