The Cult of Sensibility PDF

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THE CULT OF SENSIBILITY Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered. It also became associated with sentimental moral philosophy [morality is somehow grounded in moral sentiments or emotions]. One of the first of such texts would be John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), where he says, "I conceive that Ideas in the Understanding, are coeval with Sensation; which is such an Impression or Motion, made in some part of the body, as makes it be taken notice of in the Understanding."[2] George Cheyne and other medical writers wrote of "The English Malady," also called "hysteria" in women or "hypochondria" in men, a condition with symptoms that closely resemble the modern diagnosis of clinical depression. Cheyne considered this malady to be the result of over-taxed nerves. At the same time, theorists asserted that individuals who had ultra-sensitive nerves would have keener senses, and thus be more aware of beauty and moral truth. Thus, while it was considered a physical and/or emotional fragility, sensibility was also widely perceived as a virtue. Originating in philosophical and scientific writings, sensibility became an English-language literary movement, particularly in the then-new genre of the novel. Such works, called sentimental novels, featured individuals who were prone to sensibility, often weeping, fainting, feeling weak, or having fits in reaction to an emotionally moving experience. If one were especially sensible, one might react this way to scenes or objects that appear insignificant to others. This reactivity was considered an indication of a sensible person's ability to perceive something intellectually or emotionally stirring in the world around them. However, the popular sentimental genre soon met with a strong backlash, as anti-sensibility readers and writers contended that such extreme behavior was mere histrionics, and such an emphasis on one's own feelings and reactions a sign of narcissism. Samuel Johnson, in his portrait of Miss Gentle, articulated this criticism: She daily exercises her benevolence by pitying every misfortune that happens to every family within her circle of notice; she is in hourly terrors lest one should catch cold in the rain, and another be frighted by the high wind. Her charity she shews by lamenting that so many poor wretches should languish in the streets, and by wondering what the great can think on that they do so little good with such large estates.[3] Objections to sensibility emerged on other fronts. For one, some conservative thinkers believed in a priori concepts, that is, knowledge that exists independent of experience, such as innate knowledge believed to be imparted by God. Theorists of the a priori distrusted sensibility because of its over-reliance on experience for knowledge. Also, in the last decades of the eighteenth century, anti-sensibility thinkers often associated the emotional volatility of sensibility with the exuberant violence of the French Revolution, and in response to fears of revolution coming to Britain, sensible figures were coded as anti-patriotic or even politically subversive. Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility provides a more familiar example of this reaction against the excesses of feeling, especially those associated with women readers, and many critics have seen the novel as a critique of the "cult" of sentimentalism prevalent in the late eighteenth century.[4] The effusive nature of many sentimental heroes, such as Harley in Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling, was often decried by contemporary critics as celebrating a weak, effeminate character, which ultimately contributed to a discrediting of previously popular sentimental novels (and to a lesser extent, all novels) as unmanly works. This concern coincided with a marked rise in the production of novels by women writers of the period, whether they chose to write in a sentimental mode or not, and played a significant role in larger debates about gender, genre, literary value, and nationalist political aims during the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth, when the "National Tale" emerged in the wake of the French Revolution and England's ongoing conflict— and highly fraught Union—with Ireland.[5][6] BBC IN OUR TIME: SENSIBILITY Laurence Sterne A Sentimental Journey. 18th cent Cult of Sensibility = Sterne, Richardson, McKenzie, elevated sentimental novel to height of literary art; the rush to emotion. Austen’s Sense and Sensibility = parody/ critical of expression of feeling [?] Etymology = early 18th cent., descriptive of physical i.e. doctors. Became popularized as description of emotional responsiveness = key transition, picked up by novelists. Fiction = begins to refer to admirable sensitivity; not just capacity for feeling, but the most ignoble feelings. Wider philosophical reaction = used by those interested in questions of sociability/ what makes us emphasise. Mid-18th cent. i.e. Adam Smith, David Hume. Basis of ‘moral sentiments’ = capacity to exist as moral beings.

Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774 = European bestseller, beginning of Romanticism. Own feelings when rejected = more than he could handle; ceased to cope with society, commits suicide. Influential on continent and England. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Julia [The New Heloise] Literary movement = period of rising literacy i.e. lower classes, women reading and writing; not just middle class. Coming of a cult of the novel/ sentiment. Richardson’s Pamela + Clarissa in 1740s = amazing reaction; move towards realism. People wanted novels where they could recognise their own lives, faced with choices, able to invoke sympathy through ordinary people facing emotional predicaments of the everyday kind. Fashion for novels of sentiment/ romances/ gothic. Interesting debate around novel of sentiment’s value = on one hand, reading novels educates us in philanthropy/ benevolence/ tender-heartedness; on other, novel-reading inflames emotions, makes people fantasize/ become passive. Disturbs women’s daily life. Extraordinary impact of first great novels i.e. Richardson = wasn’t a superficial fashion. Critics of sensibility in 1780s = was merely set of gestures that fashionable young ladies could learn from novels. When Richardson’s novels swept through Europe = Samuel Johnson praised Clarissa as “the first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart.” Sensibility = distinguishing characteristic not just of literary characters but of ordinary people.Notion of malady = too much sensibility makes us ill but is something to be proud of. Whole narrative surrounding nerves in 18th cent.; increasingly physiological accounts of psychological stays. Nerves strings not to be strained; The English Malady = melancholy/ depression/ hypochondria. People coming to England marked how prevalent malady was. Fashion for nervous ailments = sign of sensitivity/ fine feeling/ certain class i.e. the gentry melancholic. Sensitivity can easily become dangerous i.e. lead to suicide. The novel of Sensibility = rather like Kitchen-Sink school of drama or Silver Fork novel; it is a label which has been applied, clearly relates to series of novels but does not perhaps take us deep. Perhaps does reflect real anxieties about health of population i.e. young women. Doctors made small fortune treating the English Malady. Cheyne’s The English Malady. Perhaps thought of as price to pay for living in unprecedently refined society which gave time for leisure/ sensitivity. Novels found enormous readerships. Reaction against materialism [?]; resistance to ideas of materialistic/ mechanical understanding of humans, great argument for the soul/ something inner which is not empirical. Tremendous anxiety about suicide in 1770s; period considered to be Enlightened/ rational = suffers which dark feelings. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1791-2 = marvellous link figure of Enlightenment, brilliantly clever young woman who must work her way up past social disadvantage. She displays great sensibility i.e. sympathy for the poor, conflict with family; she becomes great romantic heroine of sensibility through her own life i.e. rejected by lover. Her life/ experiences/ feelings = unconcealed; two publicly known suicide attempts. Influenced Jane Austen, began to write Sense and Sensibility [1795; was originally titled Eleanor and Marianne]. Title = plays with relation to/ contrast between the two terms. Austen = sensibility must be controlled by good judgement/ selfcommand; it is dangerous and asocial/ anti-social, though she does have sympathy with heroines. Almost political debate about authenticity, the importance of being true to yourself/ speaking the truth. Marianne represents = primary act in life is to be open/ true to self, even if you are vulnerable. Eleanor = social duty to lie/ politically conservative; feelings must be concealed, thus protecting self; not then vulnerable in society. Austen tries to rescue the novel from sensibility; before Austen, heroines in 18th cent novels = have sensibility. Dubious property; Eleanor = important invention, contrasted with essentially all heroines of novels. One of the bad things, as far as Austen is concerned, is that sensibility can be faked i.e. Lucy Steele. Sensibility in Language = Marianne’s fine tastes, despising of cliché. Chaste purity in use of language; desire for it to be true/ authentic/ sincere/ original [gets her into trouble, though novel seems to value this]. Romanticism = relying on inner voice. However, must take counsel, must have judgement. Romantic poets = Wordsworth said of poets they had an unusual sensibility. Journey from novel of sentiment to Romantic poets = complicated splitting in Romanticism between poetry and social responsibility, between negative capability [concept of empathy] etc., Sensibility passes out of currency but sentimentality = becomes pejorative in 1770s. promises an access to inwardness, to the things about yourself which are best. Alongside history of sensibility, ‘feelings’ isn’t used until 1770s in relation to emotions. Sterne, Richardson etc. have survived the cult of sensibility as allow 18th cent. fans of sentimentalism to enjoy it and also enables people to laugh at it [A Sentimental Journey]....