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According to Carlo Ginzburg, culture is not only the scholars’ knowledge, but it is also made of all the mixture of a population attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. In this sense, objects are one of the culture’s main expressions. Using materiality as a key, the volume analyses the history of the Neapolitan society during the Eighteenth century in some of its multiple articulations: aristocracy, law men, middle class, lower class. The idea of defining the strata of the ancien regime society is now considered unfeasible, partly because the criteria of definition and legitimation were multiple and different at the time: legal certifications, occupation, geographical origin, wealth. In this complicated universe, owning specific goods was part of the process of definition of the individual affiliation to a group, in terms of having a similar life style, as well as adopting the same ideals. The objects, inherited and annotated into inventories, useful to understand this phaenomenon, were not only precious dresses and jewels, but also iron spoons, lead cruxes, or glass beads. Despite their physical features, the value of these goods was not just economic; it stands also in the symbolic meaning they carried. La cultura, come ha affermato Carlo Ginzburg, non è solo la sapienza dei dotti, ma anche quel «complesso di atteggiamenti, credenze, codici di comportamento» che caratterizza una popolazione. Una delle sue espressioni fondamentali è costituita dagli oggetti. Utilizzando la materialità come chiave di accesso, il volume indaga la storia della società napoletana durante il Settecento in alcune delle sue molteplici articolazioni: aristocrazia, togati, ceto medio e popolo. L’idea di definire con precisione le componenti della società di antico regime si è ormai dimostrata utopistica, anche perché i criteri di definizione e di legittimazione erano allora molteplici e variegati: attestazioni giuridiche, occupazione, provenienza geografica, potere economico. In questo complicato universo, il possesso di specifici beni costituiva un elemento importante nel definire l’appartenenza degli individui a un gruppo, in quanto assunzione di un comune stile di vita, ma soprattutto in quanto condivisione di elementi ideali. Le ricchezze da cui è possibile cogliere queste dinamiche socio-culturali, lasciate in eredità e annotate negli inventari, non erano solo costituite da sontuosi gioielli o abiti sfarzosi; potevano essere anche cucchiai di ferro, crocifissi di piombo o perle di vetro colorato. Eppure, quali che fossero le loro caratteristiche, gli oggetti non avevano solo un valore economico, ma erano anche portatori di significati simbolici.

Material Culture --- Naples --- Social History --- Eighteenth Century --- Inventories

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This study examines concepts of morality and structures of domestic relationships in Samuel Richardson’s novels, situating them in the context of eighteenth-century moral writings and reader reactions. Based on a detailed analysis of Richardson’s work, this book maintains that he sought both to uphold hierarchical concepts of individual duty, and to warn of the consequences if such hierarchies were abused. In his final novel, Richardson aimed at a synthesis between social hierarchy and individual liberty, patriarchy and female self-fulfilment. His work, albeit rooted in patriarchal values, paved the way for proto-feminist conceptions of female character.

English literature --- Eighteenth-century novel --- Samuel Richardson --- ethics --- gender

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American literature --- Authors, American --- Colonies in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Homes and haunts --- Maryland --- Intellectual life --- In literature. --- Seventeenth-Century Literature --- Mid-Eighteenth-Century Literature --- Colonial America--History --- Early Eighteenth-Century Literature

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This open access book seeks to explain how the literary commentary of the Lives of the Poets speaks to us today because of its ethical goals. Edward Tomarken elucidates this element of Johnson’s literary criticism by using Ralph Cohen’s genre method, the topic of Chapter One, “Why Genre”. Chapters two to five address the most prevalent genres of the Lives: tragedy, metaphysical poetry, the epic, the pastoral elegy, and the mock epic. Chapter six considers the rise of literary criticism as a genre. Chapter Seven demonstrates how ethical genre criticism relates literature to life. And the final chapter explains why, although Johnson considers ‘moral’ and ‘ethical’ as nearly interchangeable terms, Tomarken prefers ‘ethical’ because it relates genre criticism to present problems in literary and non-literary worlds.

Literature --- Literature, Modern --- Literary form. --- Literary Criticism. --- Eighteenth-Century Literature. --- Literary Genre. --- History and criticism. --- 18th century.

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La raison était supposée autrefois constituer ce qui unit les êtres humains. Elle n'a plus à présent de forme unitaire et dominante ; elle est au contraire fragmentée en une multitude de rationalités diverses, réelles ou supposées telles, qui coexistent de façon conflictuelle. Parmi les philosophes qui ont le plus compté au cours du XXe siècle, bien peu ont été des défenseurs de la raison et des Lumières ; et certains de ceux qui ont exercé (et continuent encore aujourd'hui à exercer) l'influence la plus considérable ont été ses adversaires declarés. Notre époque a même été confrontée à un processus d'"irrationalisation de la science", dont certains de nos maîtres à penser postmodernes ont essayé de nous convaincre qu'elle n'était en aucune façon le produit exemplaire de la raison et de l'effort pour tendre à une connaissance objective de la réalité. On peut néanmoins percevoir depuis quelque temps, à des signes divers, qu'au lieu de tenir la raison pour responsable de la plupart des maux de notre époque, il se pourrait bien que la seule solution qui s'offre désormais à nous soit de nous décider à lui accorder réellement une nouvelle chance. Jusqu'à quel point et à quel prix la raison peut-elle espérer réussir à reconquérir au moins en partie le rôle qu'elle a joué autrefois comme faculté d'unité et d'universalité? C'est une entreprise évidemment difficile et problématique, qui suppose notamment que l'on ait répondu de façon suffisamment claire et convaincante à la question de savoir ce qui peut être conservé et ce qui doit être abandonné dans l'héritage des Lumières.

Philosophy & Religion. --- Philosophy. --- Enlightenment. --- Irrationalism (Philosophy). --- Absurd (Philosophy) --- Belief and doubt --- Philosophy --- Rationalism --- Aufklärung --- Eighteenth century --- Philosophy, Modern --- Mental philosophy --- Humanities --- rationalisme --- Lumières --- raison --- vérité --- irrationalisme