1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463246203321

Autore

Brown Tony C. <1971->

Titolo

The primitive, the aesthetic, and the savage [[electronic resource] ] : an Enlightenment problematic / / Tony C. Brown

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Minneapolis, : University of Minnesota Press, c2012

ISBN

0-8166-8268-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (302 p.)

Disciplina

809/.9145

Soggetti

Literature, Modern - 18th century - History and criticism

Primitivism in literature

Enlightenment

Aesthetics, European - 18th century

Noble savage stereotype in literature

Literature and anthropology

Primitive societies in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: An enlightenment problematic -- The primitive -- The aesthetic -- The savage -- Joseph Addison's China -- Kant's tattooed New Zealanders -- Adding history to a footprint in Robinson Crusoe -- Indian mounds in the end-of-the-line mode -- Conclusion: ... as if Europe existed.

Sommario/riassunto

Tony C. Brown examines "the inescapable yet infinitely troubling figure of the not-quite-nothing" in Enlightenment attempts to think about the aesthetic and the savage. The various texts Brown considers-including the writings of Addison, Rousseau, Kant, and Defoe-turn to exotic figures in order to delimit the aesthetic, and to aesthetics in order to comprehend the savage.In his intriguing exploration Brown discovers that the primitive introduces into the aesthetic and the savage an element that proves necessary yet difficult to conceive. At its most profound, Brown explains, thi