Zoe Beenstock | University of Haifa (original) (raw)

Papers by Zoe Beenstock

Studies in Romanticism

: European Romanticism often represents Palestine in ageographical terms. Through an analysis of ... more : European Romanticism often represents Palestine in ageographical terms. Through an analysis of Volney’s writings on the East, this article traces Palestinian ageography to religiously-inflected discourses that identify Palestine as Europe’s future. Volney juxtaposes antiquarianism, realist travelogue, and science fictional literary modes to represent Palestine’s multiple spiritual pasts, its contemporaneity with Europe, and its prophetic anticipation of revolution. His account of Palestine shapes Romanticism and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as arguably the first science fiction novel, demonstrating the importance of religious discourses for Romantic European engagements with Palestine.

European Romantic Review, 2023

William Blake’s evocative figuration of England as Jerusalem is central to debates about his atti... more William Blake’s evocative figuration of England as Jerusalem is
central to debates about his attitude to nationalism. Nonetheless,
Jerusalem in his poems is often read as not actually referring to
the city in Palestine. In this article, I argue that while Blake’s
refraction of Enlightenment standards of time and space has
produced depoliticized readings of his Jerusalem, his attempt to
restore spirituality to Britain was nonetheless cast in political and
in geographical terms. Blake reacted against an Arian theology
that relegated spirituality to a distant time and space. In his
prophetic poems, he undoes the temporal and spatial
organization of the Hebrew Bible, a possibility first explored in
Milton and then fully achieved in Jerusalem, where Blake
deconstructs the ancient biblical world to rebuild it in modern
Britain. To rescue Britain from spiritual crisis, Blake rewrites
Newtonian physics and theology, the Miltonian epic, antiquarian
histories about the eastern Levant, and the Hebrew Bible.
Common to these diverse engagements is Blake’s effacement of
the East as the cradle of spirituality, and his recasting of sacred
geography in immediate local terms, moving it away from the
geography of Palestine.
They

Palestine as Europe’s Future: Antiquity as Contemporaneity in Volney’s Travels, Considerations, and The Ruins, 2023

Within Romantic studies, Romantic-era Palestine appears as a thinly conceptualized geography, def... more Within Romantic studies, Romantic-era Palestine appears as a thinly conceptualized geography, defined mainly in terms of its borders with Europe and often through ageographical conventions. As Talissa J. Ford comments, this ageography refracts European imperialism, presenting an imaginary that is beyond the boundaries of nation. 1 The Ottoman Empire's flexible model of administration poses a challenge for European historiography, which still debates the coherence of a Romantic-era Palestine, as in Jonathan Parry's observation "what the West called Palestine was never an Ottoman district as such." 2 In response to such criticism, Basem Ra'ad suggests considering Ottoman Palestine within a region defined "in between Mesopotamia and Egypt. .. the area of 'Greater Syria,' which includes present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine (the last is now Israel and the other occupied territories, Gaza and the West Bank)." 3 Within Greater Syria, administration depended on the power of local governors, so that Ahmed al-Jazzar, the pasha of Acre in Syria, controlled parts of Palestine between 1776 and 1804, which included Hebron, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, by gathering taxes from some of the residents. 4 His successor, Pasha Sulyman, retained control due to conflict mediation among rival clans in Nablus. 5 Romantic-era European accounts of Palestine gain coherence less via geography than through a cluster of references to the topographies, peoples,

https://www.ynet.co.il/environment-science/article/symut429c

1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, ... more 1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, settings, journeys, and locales. We invited the speakers to expand their talks into essays; some of the crops of this endeavor are included in the present issue. This travelling conference took place in the Middle East, and specifically in two demographically-mixed cities of Jews and Arabs. As these locations kept reminding us, maps-as a device for organizing landscapes, routes, and borders-are often the cause of bloodshed, conflict, and bereavement. At the same time, they are a source of knowledge, sparked by curiosity, adventure, and the desire to rethink geographies. The history of British literature captures this duality. Replete with the tremendous consequences of British imperialism, Victorian and post-Victorian mappings have had an immense cultural influence extended to large parts of the globe, while also reinforcing systems of cruel oppression.

Edinburgh University Press

This chapter explores Rousseau’s account of the tension between community and individual by exami... more This chapter explores Rousseau’s account of the tension between community and individual by examining the Second Discourse and the Social Contract on the one hand, and Julie on the other. In his political theory Rousseau defines the state of nature as a mere fantasy which belongs to an optative imagined past. In leaving the state of nature, people trade basic needs for decadent desires. Rousseau introduces the general will as a practical device for managing the asociability of the private will, which is driven mainly by appetite. To safeguard the general will from its wayward members, individuals must form a social contract which transforms them into sociable beings. In Julie Rousseau explores the sacrifices that individuals make in joining the general will, as Julie is torn between personal desire on the one hand and social conformity on the other. Rousseau’s literature suggests that the two are incompatible and thus ‘judges’ his philosophy, exploring the deathly outcome of contrac...

Edinburgh University Press

Criticism often organizes Godwin’s career by genre, suggesting that Godwin progressed from politi... more Criticism often organizes Godwin’s career by genre, suggesting that Godwin progressed from political theory to sentimental fiction. Instead this chapter argues that Godwin follows Rousseau in writing literature to ‘judge’ his own philosophy. In Enquiry Concerning Political Justice Godwin posits society as prior to the individual. He regards the general good as mandatory rather than voluntary. Godwin’s novels examine the struggles of individuals in conforming to his model of compulsory sociability. In Fleetwood and Mandeville Godwin explores the shortcomings of Rousseau’s theory of individualist education. He fictionalizes Rousseau, Hume, Wollstonecraft, and the First Earl of Shaftesbury, exploring the shortcomings of their theories. In Fleetwood Godwin uses elements of the genre of the secret history to explore political theory’s failure to validate women within the public sphere. Deloraine extends Godwin’s criticism of the social contract tradition for being inherently patriarchal....

Edinburgh University Press

This book examines the relationship between two major traditions which have not been considered i... more This book examines the relationship between two major traditions which have not been considered in conjunction: British Romanticism and social contract philosophy. It argues that an emerging political vocabulary was translated into a literary vocabulary in social contract theory. British Romanticism absorbed the metaphors and questions of this new discourse of individualism. Elements of social contract theory have subsequently reverberated backwards to shape the reception of Romanticism in contemporary literary studies and culture, leading Romanticism to be perceived as an individualistic literary movement. But Romantic writers were actually astute commentators on a crisis in concepts of community that had developed in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political theory. By looking at the intersection of social contract theory, Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, German Idealism, canonical works of Romanticism, and the political culture of the 1790s, the book provides an alternative...

Edinburgh University Press

This conclusion proposes understanding Romanticism through a model of internal conflict instead o... more This conclusion proposes understanding Romanticism through a model of internal conflict instead of discrete distinctions of genre and political orientation, which have traditionally served as Romanticism’s defining categories. In replacing Aristotle with Rousseau modern culture moves to a socially contingent model of polity in which a newly-minted individualism contends with its own contingent social grounding. In Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle suggests that the Romantic era has come to an end. Sartor Resartus repeats the imagery of Frankenstein, relating monstrosity to empiricism and accusing the Scottish Enlightenment of excessive materialism. Carlyle reclaims Rousseau as an anti-empiricist who recognizes socialization as a fundamentally unhappy development that can barely contain the inherently violent forces of human nature. The post-Romantic modern self as articulated by Carlyle is defined by its exile from social totality, and by an account of human beings as inherently antiso...

Edinburgh University Press

Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and le... more Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and letters draw on Rousseau’s critique of luxury and frequently allude to the general will, depicting Rousseau as a Christ-like figure. Coleridge’s subsequent disappointment with Pantisocracy led him to reject Rousseau and the social contract. Comparing Rousseau to Luther in The Friend, Coleridge argues that Rousseau’s unhappiness arises from a conflict between an age of individualism and an ongoing need for community. According to Coleridge, poetry tolerates this conflict better than philosophy. In ‘Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement’ Coleridge suggests that social retreat offers illusory solace from war and social crisis. He critiques the state of nature, sympathy, and even religion for failing to balance the self with its environment. Thematically and formally The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explores this crisis in cohering systems. Through the mariner’s relationship to the a...

Edinburgh University Press

Wordsworth understood poetry as a development of political economy. The 1805 Prelude describes hi... more Wordsworth understood poetry as a development of political economy. The 1805 Prelude describes his personal growth as a transition from a state of nature to society. Echoing Rousseau’s Second Discourse and Social Contract, Wordsworth presents nature as a socializing force and initially assumes that the French Revolution realizes the general will. When the revolution degenerates into violence, Wordsworth also blames its failure on Rousseau’s theory for its weak account of community. In the final books of the 1805 Prelude Wordsworth qualifies his withdrawal to the private will and to poetic vocation by comparing himself to Adam Smith, David Hume, and Godwin, all of whom he regards as excessively individualistic. In his revisions to the 1850 Prelude and in The Excursion Wordsworth eclipses individual sovereignty and turns to utopian communitarianism. This resolution of the tension between private and general wills explains the lesser popularity of these poems for modern readers. Noneth...

Edinburgh University Press

As a sociable being that is barred from society, Frankenstein’s monster presents a sustained enga... more As a sociable being that is barred from society, Frankenstein’s monster presents a sustained engagement with social contract theory’s major dilemma of whether individualism can produce sociability. The male creature’s isolation and inner disunity suggest that contract theory displaces men and is unable to concatenate even those members that should be eligible for full citizenship. Shelley focuses on the gender inequality of contract theory through her different creation stories of the creatures’ bodies. In Victor’s decision not to complete the female creature she rejects Wollstonecraft’s revisionist approach to Rousseau, and demonstrates that social contract theory cannot be rewritten to include women. Women are not defined as political subjects but do have independent wills. Therefore, they are potentially resistant to contract and a threat to political control. Contending with Wollstonecraft and Rousseau, and also Coleridge and Godwin, Shelley suggests that intertextual relations ...

Edinburgh University Press

This introduction argues that not only have Romantic works been shaped by social contract theory’... more This introduction argues that not only have Romantic works been shaped by social contract theory’s tensions, but also their reception. The historical-political turn in Romanticism studies has brought attention to politics but often regards Romantic literature as promoting social retreat. Yet Romanticism’s preoccupation with retreat responds to social contract theory and its alienation of individuals from the social body. British Romanticism was affected by a rift in theories of sociability as European culture shifted away from an Aristotelian model of natural sociability to a modern view of sociability as a secondary property of human nature. The introduction considers differences between genres of political theory and Romantic poetry and novels. Social contract theory developed a subversive approach to literature as a medium suited to political critique. Whereas Romantic poetry maintains a critical distance from philosophical discourse based on formal discreteness, narrative fictio...

European Romantic Review, Apr 1, 2012

European Romantic Review, 2012

Edinburgh University Press

Despite the attempt of social contract theory and its critics to banish Aristotle’s concept of na... more Despite the attempt of social contract theory and its critics to banish Aristotle’s concept of natural sociability, imagery of dismembered bodies resurfaces in political writings circa 1650-1810. Fractured body imagery is a metaphor for a cadaverous commonality that is inherent to modern political theory. From different perspectives, British empiricism, the Scottish Enlightenment, German Idealism, and Romanticism all express a crisis in theories of community through the imagery of a fragmented body politic. Hobbes and Locke unbind the state from metaphysical legitimizations but are unable to reconcile concepts of individuality, freedom, and sovereignty. Adam Smith’s invisible hand retains a visceral memory of the lost body politic, which finds an outlet in the workings of sympathy. German Idealism recasts the conflict between private individuals and commonality as a productive dynamic. British caricatures of the 1790s reproduce the fragmentation of individuals from the social body i...

Special Issue of Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, 2021

1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, ... more 1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, settings, journeys, and locales. We invited the speakers to expand their talks into essays; some of the crops of this endeavor are included in the present issue. This travelling conference took place in the Middle East, and specifically in two demographically-mixed cities of Jews and Arabs. As these locations kept reminding us, maps-as a device for organizing landscapes, routes, and borders-are often the cause of bloodshed, conflict, and bereavement. At the same time, they are a source of knowledge, sparked by curiosity, adventure, and the desire to rethink geographies. The history of British literature captures this duality. Replete with the tremendous consequences of British imperialism, Victorian and post-Victorian mappings have had an immense cultural influence extended to large parts of the globe, while also reinforcing systems of cruel oppression.

Journal of the History of Ideas, 2020

Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniatu... more Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniature and is associated with social retreat. Yet Mill saw his encounter with the Wordsworthian lyric as a corrective to utilitarian social theory, and as a supplement to Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy. Mill suggests that the writings of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham overlook the bond connecting individuals to one another. He reconceives communal aspects of feeling by drawing on Wordsworth’s poetry as the fulfillment of Smith’s affective account of social relations, a development which anticipates affect theory.

Studies in Romanticism

: European Romanticism often represents Palestine in ageographical terms. Through an analysis of ... more : European Romanticism often represents Palestine in ageographical terms. Through an analysis of Volney’s writings on the East, this article traces Palestinian ageography to religiously-inflected discourses that identify Palestine as Europe’s future. Volney juxtaposes antiquarianism, realist travelogue, and science fictional literary modes to represent Palestine’s multiple spiritual pasts, its contemporaneity with Europe, and its prophetic anticipation of revolution. His account of Palestine shapes Romanticism and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as arguably the first science fiction novel, demonstrating the importance of religious discourses for Romantic European engagements with Palestine.

European Romantic Review, 2023

William Blake’s evocative figuration of England as Jerusalem is central to debates about his atti... more William Blake’s evocative figuration of England as Jerusalem is
central to debates about his attitude to nationalism. Nonetheless,
Jerusalem in his poems is often read as not actually referring to
the city in Palestine. In this article, I argue that while Blake’s
refraction of Enlightenment standards of time and space has
produced depoliticized readings of his Jerusalem, his attempt to
restore spirituality to Britain was nonetheless cast in political and
in geographical terms. Blake reacted against an Arian theology
that relegated spirituality to a distant time and space. In his
prophetic poems, he undoes the temporal and spatial
organization of the Hebrew Bible, a possibility first explored in
Milton and then fully achieved in Jerusalem, where Blake
deconstructs the ancient biblical world to rebuild it in modern
Britain. To rescue Britain from spiritual crisis, Blake rewrites
Newtonian physics and theology, the Miltonian epic, antiquarian
histories about the eastern Levant, and the Hebrew Bible.
Common to these diverse engagements is Blake’s effacement of
the East as the cradle of spirituality, and his recasting of sacred
geography in immediate local terms, moving it away from the
geography of Palestine.
They

Palestine as Europe’s Future: Antiquity as Contemporaneity in Volney’s Travels, Considerations, and The Ruins, 2023

Within Romantic studies, Romantic-era Palestine appears as a thinly conceptualized geography, def... more Within Romantic studies, Romantic-era Palestine appears as a thinly conceptualized geography, defined mainly in terms of its borders with Europe and often through ageographical conventions. As Talissa J. Ford comments, this ageography refracts European imperialism, presenting an imaginary that is beyond the boundaries of nation. 1 The Ottoman Empire's flexible model of administration poses a challenge for European historiography, which still debates the coherence of a Romantic-era Palestine, as in Jonathan Parry's observation "what the West called Palestine was never an Ottoman district as such." 2 In response to such criticism, Basem Ra'ad suggests considering Ottoman Palestine within a region defined "in between Mesopotamia and Egypt. .. the area of 'Greater Syria,' which includes present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine (the last is now Israel and the other occupied territories, Gaza and the West Bank)." 3 Within Greater Syria, administration depended on the power of local governors, so that Ahmed al-Jazzar, the pasha of Acre in Syria, controlled parts of Palestine between 1776 and 1804, which included Hebron, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, by gathering taxes from some of the residents. 4 His successor, Pasha Sulyman, retained control due to conflict mediation among rival clans in Nablus. 5 Romantic-era European accounts of Palestine gain coherence less via geography than through a cluster of references to the topographies, peoples,

https://www.ynet.co.il/environment-science/article/symut429c

1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, ... more 1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, settings, journeys, and locales. We invited the speakers to expand their talks into essays; some of the crops of this endeavor are included in the present issue. This travelling conference took place in the Middle East, and specifically in two demographically-mixed cities of Jews and Arabs. As these locations kept reminding us, maps-as a device for organizing landscapes, routes, and borders-are often the cause of bloodshed, conflict, and bereavement. At the same time, they are a source of knowledge, sparked by curiosity, adventure, and the desire to rethink geographies. The history of British literature captures this duality. Replete with the tremendous consequences of British imperialism, Victorian and post-Victorian mappings have had an immense cultural influence extended to large parts of the globe, while also reinforcing systems of cruel oppression.

Edinburgh University Press

This chapter explores Rousseau’s account of the tension between community and individual by exami... more This chapter explores Rousseau’s account of the tension between community and individual by examining the Second Discourse and the Social Contract on the one hand, and Julie on the other. In his political theory Rousseau defines the state of nature as a mere fantasy which belongs to an optative imagined past. In leaving the state of nature, people trade basic needs for decadent desires. Rousseau introduces the general will as a practical device for managing the asociability of the private will, which is driven mainly by appetite. To safeguard the general will from its wayward members, individuals must form a social contract which transforms them into sociable beings. In Julie Rousseau explores the sacrifices that individuals make in joining the general will, as Julie is torn between personal desire on the one hand and social conformity on the other. Rousseau’s literature suggests that the two are incompatible and thus ‘judges’ his philosophy, exploring the deathly outcome of contrac...

Edinburgh University Press

Criticism often organizes Godwin’s career by genre, suggesting that Godwin progressed from politi... more Criticism often organizes Godwin’s career by genre, suggesting that Godwin progressed from political theory to sentimental fiction. Instead this chapter argues that Godwin follows Rousseau in writing literature to ‘judge’ his own philosophy. In Enquiry Concerning Political Justice Godwin posits society as prior to the individual. He regards the general good as mandatory rather than voluntary. Godwin’s novels examine the struggles of individuals in conforming to his model of compulsory sociability. In Fleetwood and Mandeville Godwin explores the shortcomings of Rousseau’s theory of individualist education. He fictionalizes Rousseau, Hume, Wollstonecraft, and the First Earl of Shaftesbury, exploring the shortcomings of their theories. In Fleetwood Godwin uses elements of the genre of the secret history to explore political theory’s failure to validate women within the public sphere. Deloraine extends Godwin’s criticism of the social contract tradition for being inherently patriarchal....

Edinburgh University Press

This book examines the relationship between two major traditions which have not been considered i... more This book examines the relationship between two major traditions which have not been considered in conjunction: British Romanticism and social contract philosophy. It argues that an emerging political vocabulary was translated into a literary vocabulary in social contract theory. British Romanticism absorbed the metaphors and questions of this new discourse of individualism. Elements of social contract theory have subsequently reverberated backwards to shape the reception of Romanticism in contemporary literary studies and culture, leading Romanticism to be perceived as an individualistic literary movement. But Romantic writers were actually astute commentators on a crisis in concepts of community that had developed in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political theory. By looking at the intersection of social contract theory, Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, German Idealism, canonical works of Romanticism, and the political culture of the 1790s, the book provides an alternative...

Edinburgh University Press

This conclusion proposes understanding Romanticism through a model of internal conflict instead o... more This conclusion proposes understanding Romanticism through a model of internal conflict instead of discrete distinctions of genre and political orientation, which have traditionally served as Romanticism’s defining categories. In replacing Aristotle with Rousseau modern culture moves to a socially contingent model of polity in which a newly-minted individualism contends with its own contingent social grounding. In Sartor Resartus Thomas Carlyle suggests that the Romantic era has come to an end. Sartor Resartus repeats the imagery of Frankenstein, relating monstrosity to empiricism and accusing the Scottish Enlightenment of excessive materialism. Carlyle reclaims Rousseau as an anti-empiricist who recognizes socialization as a fundamentally unhappy development that can barely contain the inherently violent forces of human nature. The post-Romantic modern self as articulated by Carlyle is defined by its exile from social totality, and by an account of human beings as inherently antiso...

Edinburgh University Press

Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and le... more Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and letters draw on Rousseau’s critique of luxury and frequently allude to the general will, depicting Rousseau as a Christ-like figure. Coleridge’s subsequent disappointment with Pantisocracy led him to reject Rousseau and the social contract. Comparing Rousseau to Luther in The Friend, Coleridge argues that Rousseau’s unhappiness arises from a conflict between an age of individualism and an ongoing need for community. According to Coleridge, poetry tolerates this conflict better than philosophy. In ‘Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement’ Coleridge suggests that social retreat offers illusory solace from war and social crisis. He critiques the state of nature, sympathy, and even religion for failing to balance the self with its environment. Thematically and formally The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explores this crisis in cohering systems. Through the mariner’s relationship to the a...

Edinburgh University Press

Wordsworth understood poetry as a development of political economy. The 1805 Prelude describes hi... more Wordsworth understood poetry as a development of political economy. The 1805 Prelude describes his personal growth as a transition from a state of nature to society. Echoing Rousseau’s Second Discourse and Social Contract, Wordsworth presents nature as a socializing force and initially assumes that the French Revolution realizes the general will. When the revolution degenerates into violence, Wordsworth also blames its failure on Rousseau’s theory for its weak account of community. In the final books of the 1805 Prelude Wordsworth qualifies his withdrawal to the private will and to poetic vocation by comparing himself to Adam Smith, David Hume, and Godwin, all of whom he regards as excessively individualistic. In his revisions to the 1850 Prelude and in The Excursion Wordsworth eclipses individual sovereignty and turns to utopian communitarianism. This resolution of the tension between private and general wills explains the lesser popularity of these poems for modern readers. Noneth...

Edinburgh University Press

As a sociable being that is barred from society, Frankenstein’s monster presents a sustained enga... more As a sociable being that is barred from society, Frankenstein’s monster presents a sustained engagement with social contract theory’s major dilemma of whether individualism can produce sociability. The male creature’s isolation and inner disunity suggest that contract theory displaces men and is unable to concatenate even those members that should be eligible for full citizenship. Shelley focuses on the gender inequality of contract theory through her different creation stories of the creatures’ bodies. In Victor’s decision not to complete the female creature she rejects Wollstonecraft’s revisionist approach to Rousseau, and demonstrates that social contract theory cannot be rewritten to include women. Women are not defined as political subjects but do have independent wills. Therefore, they are potentially resistant to contract and a threat to political control. Contending with Wollstonecraft and Rousseau, and also Coleridge and Godwin, Shelley suggests that intertextual relations ...

Edinburgh University Press

This introduction argues that not only have Romantic works been shaped by social contract theory’... more This introduction argues that not only have Romantic works been shaped by social contract theory’s tensions, but also their reception. The historical-political turn in Romanticism studies has brought attention to politics but often regards Romantic literature as promoting social retreat. Yet Romanticism’s preoccupation with retreat responds to social contract theory and its alienation of individuals from the social body. British Romanticism was affected by a rift in theories of sociability as European culture shifted away from an Aristotelian model of natural sociability to a modern view of sociability as a secondary property of human nature. The introduction considers differences between genres of political theory and Romantic poetry and novels. Social contract theory developed a subversive approach to literature as a medium suited to political critique. Whereas Romantic poetry maintains a critical distance from philosophical discourse based on formal discreteness, narrative fictio...

European Romantic Review, Apr 1, 2012

European Romantic Review, 2012

Edinburgh University Press

Despite the attempt of social contract theory and its critics to banish Aristotle’s concept of na... more Despite the attempt of social contract theory and its critics to banish Aristotle’s concept of natural sociability, imagery of dismembered bodies resurfaces in political writings circa 1650-1810. Fractured body imagery is a metaphor for a cadaverous commonality that is inherent to modern political theory. From different perspectives, British empiricism, the Scottish Enlightenment, German Idealism, and Romanticism all express a crisis in theories of community through the imagery of a fragmented body politic. Hobbes and Locke unbind the state from metaphysical legitimizations but are unable to reconcile concepts of individuality, freedom, and sovereignty. Adam Smith’s invisible hand retains a visceral memory of the lost body politic, which finds an outlet in the workings of sympathy. German Idealism recasts the conflict between private individuals and commonality as a productive dynamic. British caricatures of the 1790s reproduce the fragmentation of individuals from the social body i...

Special Issue of Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, 2021

1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, ... more 1 The participants discussed long-19 th-century, Victorian and post-Victorian literary mappings, settings, journeys, and locales. We invited the speakers to expand their talks into essays; some of the crops of this endeavor are included in the present issue. This travelling conference took place in the Middle East, and specifically in two demographically-mixed cities of Jews and Arabs. As these locations kept reminding us, maps-as a device for organizing landscapes, routes, and borders-are often the cause of bloodshed, conflict, and bereavement. At the same time, they are a source of knowledge, sparked by curiosity, adventure, and the desire to rethink geographies. The history of British literature captures this duality. Replete with the tremendous consequences of British imperialism, Victorian and post-Victorian mappings have had an immense cultural influence extended to large parts of the globe, while also reinforcing systems of cruel oppression.

Journal of the History of Ideas, 2020

Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniatu... more Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniature and is associated with social retreat. Yet Mill saw his encounter with the Wordsworthian lyric as a corrective to utilitarian social theory, and as a supplement to Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy. Mill suggests that the writings of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham overlook the bond connecting individuals to one another. He reconceives communal aspects of feeling by drawing on Wordsworth’s poetry as the fulfillment of Smith’s affective account of social relations, a development which anticipates affect theory.

The second meeting of the interdisciplinary workshop on Levant antiquarianism in European History... more The second meeting of the interdisciplinary workshop on Levant antiquarianism in European History and Literature (1500-1850) organized and sponsored by the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History and hosted by the EUI Florence explores a range of themes and cultural practices which include:

Travel narrative
Scriptural history
Dilettanti
Orientalism
Tombs and rememberance
Natural histories
Sacred antiquarianism

Speakers: Damiano Acciarino, Zoe Beenstock, Paul Csillag, Emanuele Giusti, Sundar Henny, Noah Heringman, Simon Mills, Avinoam Yuval-Naeh, Valentina Pugliano, Jonathan Sachs, Umberto Signori, Zur Shalev, Jillian Heydt-Stevenson, Ana Struillou, Rosemarie Sweet
Program:
https://hcmh.haifa.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Meeting-program_24.1.23_1-2.2.23.pdf