Downing A. Thomas – författare

The search for the origins of language was one of the most pressing philosophical issues of the eighteenth century. What has often escaped notice, however, is the fact that music figures prominently in this search. This study analyses instances of thinking or reasoning about music and music theory as they appear within the logical and narrative structure of contemporary texts, including writings by Rousseau, Diderot, Rameau and Condillac. These can only be properly understood as part of an interdisciplinary project, as situated within a field of larger cultural issues and concerns. The author is interested in the ways in which music functions within this discursive framework to facilitate links between language and meaning, and between conceptions of an original society and an ideal social order.

This study recognizes the broad impact of opera in early-modern French culture. Downing A. Thomas considers the use of operatic spectacle and music by Louis XIV as a vehicle for absolutism; the resistance of music to the aesthetic and political agendas of the time; and the long-term development of opera in eighteenth-century humanist culture. He argues that French opera moved away from the politics of the absolute monarchy in which it originated to address Enlightenment concerns with sensibility and feeling. The book combines close readings of significant seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century operatic works, circumstantial writings and theoretical works on theatre and opera, together with a measure of reception history. Thomas examines key works by Lully, Rameau and Charpentier, among others, and extends his reach from the late seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth.

The search for the origins of language was one of the most pressing philosophical issues of the eighteenth century. What has often escaped notice, however, is the fact that music figures prominently in this search. This study analyses instances of thinking or reasoning about music and music theory as they appear within the logical and narrative structure of contemporary texts, including writings by Rousseau, Diderot, Rameau and Condillac. These can only be properly understood as part of an interdisciplinary project, as situated within a field of larger cultural issues and concerns. The author is interested in the ways in which music functions within this discursive framework to facilitate links between language and meaning, and between conceptions of an original society and an ideal social order.

This study recognizes the broad impact of opera in early-modern French culture. Downing A. Thomas considers the use of operatic spectacle and music by Louis XIV as a vehicle for absolutism; the resistance of music to the aesthetic and political agendas of the time; and the long-term development of opera in eighteenth-century humanist culture. He argues that French opera moved away from the politics of the absolute monarchy in which it originated to address Enlightenment concerns with sensibility and feeling. The book combines close readings of significant seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century operatic works, circumstantial writings and theoretical works on theatre and opera, together with a measure of reception history. Thomas examines key works by Lully, Rameau and Charpentier, among others, and extends his reach from the late seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth.

The essays in this volume share a common concern with investigating Enlightenment categories of historical understanding and determining how these categories helped shape Enlightenment culture. The contributors address the question of how eighteenth-century writers make sense of the past-how they interpret it, give it meaning and form, and deploy it for their own practical, aesthetic, and ideological purposes. Contributors and contents: Frank Palmeri, Conjectural History and the Origins of Sociology Stuart Peterfreund, From the Forbidden to the Familiar: The Way of Natural Theology Leading up to and beyond the Long Eighteenth Century Tony C. Brown, The Barrows of History Shane Agin, Sex Education in the Enlightened Nation Suzanne R. Pucci, Snapshots of Family Intimacy in the French Eighteenth Century: The Case of Paul et Virginie Ana Hontanilla, Images of Barbaric Spain in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Writing Mark R.Malin, The Good, the Bad, and the Sentimental Savage: Native Americans in Representative Novels from the Spanish Enlightenment Simon During, Church, State, and Modernization: English Literature as Gentlemanly Knowledge after 1688 Julia Rudolph, "That Blunderbuss of Law": Giles Jacob, Abridgement, and Print Culture Anne H. Stevens, Forging Literary History: Historical Fiction and Literary Forgery in Eighteenth-Century Britain Jennifer Thorn, "All beautiful in woe": Gender, Nation, and Phillis Wheatley's Niobe Hilary Englert, "This Rhapsodical Work": Object-Narrators and the Figure of Sterne

This volume spotlights the visual arts, vision, and blindness during the Enlightenment in France, Britain, and Germany. The essays range from exploring the musical and cultural impact of an eighteenth-century virtuoso violinist to analyzing lotteries as romance in eighteenth-century England. Contributors and Contents: Mary Sheriff, The King, the Trickster and the Gorgon: On the Illusions of Rococo ArtBeverly Wilcox, The Hissing of Monsieur PaginJessica Richard, Lotteries and the Romance of Chance in Eighteenth-Century EnglandEmrys D.Jones, 'Friendship like mine / Throws all Respects behind it': Male Companionship and the Cult of Frederick, Prince of WalesDavid Hagan, Threading the Needle: Problems in Reading Dennis Diderot's La lettre sur les aveuglesJosephine Touma, From the Playhouse to the Page: Some Visual Sources for Watteau's Theatrical UniverseDaniel O'Quinn, Diversionary Tactics and Coercive Acts: John Burgoyne's Fete ChampetreShelley King, Portrait of a Marriage: John and Amelia Opie and the Sister ArtsDavid Fairer, Where Fuming Trees Refresh the Thirsty AirDorothea Von Mucke, Iconic Turn and the Power of Images: Goethe's Elective AffinitiesLaure Marcellesi, Louis-Sebastien Mercier: Prophet, Abolitionist, Colonialist

The interdisciplinary essays in this volume represent innovative scholarship on the Enlightenment in Britain, Europe, and North America. Contributors and contents: Dennis Moore, Colloquy with the Author: Vincent Carretta and Equiano, the African Toni Bowers, Behn's Monmouth: Sedition, Seduction, and Tory Ideology in the 1680s Tita Chico, Details and Frankness: Affective Relations in Sir Charles Gradison Rebecca M. Mills, 'To be both Patroness and Friend': Patronage, Friendship, and Protofeminism in the Life of Elizabeth Thomas (1675-1731) Catherine M. Jaffe, Noticia de la vida y obras del Conde de Rumford (1802) by Maria Lorenza de los Rios, Marquesa de Fuerte-Hijar: Authorizing a Space for Female Charity Laura Mandell, Prayer, Feeling, Action: Anna Barbauld and the Public Worship Controversy Chloe Wigston Smith, Dressing the British: Clothes, Customs, and Nation in W. H. Pyne's The Costume of Great Britain Heidi E. Kraus, David's Roman Vedute Elizabeth Claire, Monstrous Choreographies: Waltzing, Madness, and Miscarriage Douglas S. Harvey, Strolling Players in Albany, Montreal, and Quebec City, 1797 and 1810: Performance, Class, and Empire Woodruff D.Smith, Corruption and Eighteenth-Century Social Science: Mapping the Space of Political Economy