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7 - Essay, Enlightenment, Revolution

from Part II - The Work of the Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2022

By
Nersessian Anahid
Edited by
Kara Wittman  and
Evan Kindley
Kara Wittman
Affiliation:
Pomona College, California
Evan Kindley
Affiliation:
Pomona College, California
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Summary

This chapter argues that the essay begins the eighteenth century as a bourgeois form and ends it as a radical one. Over the course of the century the form and style of periodical essayists such asRichard Steele, Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, and the Earl of Shaftesbury are taken up by writers with revolutionary politics, such as Jonathan Swift, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jean-Paul Marat, and Karl Marx.

Keywords

EnlightenmentFrench RevolutionKarl MarxMarxismRichard SteeleSpectatorJoseph AddisonSamuel JohnsonEarl of ShaftesburyJonathan SwiftJean-Paul MaratEdmund BurkeMary WollstonecraftWilliam Hazlitt
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to The Essay , pp. 111 - 125
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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