The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant

In this book, Robert Doran offers the first in-depth treatment of the major theories of the sublime, from the ancient Greek treatise On the Sublime (attributed to 'Longinus') and its reception in early modern literary theory to the philosophical accounts of Burke and Kant. Doran explains how and why the sublime became a key concept of modern thought and shows how the various theories of sublimity are united by a common structure - the paradoxical experience of being at once overwhelmed and exalted - and a common concern: the preservation of a notion of transcendence in the face of the secularization of modern culture. Combining intellectual history with literary theory and philosophical analysis, his book provides a new, searching and multilayered account of a concept that continues to stimulate thought about our responses to art, nature and human events.

Author: Robert Doran
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/16/2015
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9781107101531

About the Author
Doran, Robert: - Robert Doran is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester, New York. He is the author of The Ethics of Theory: Philosophy, History, Literature (2016) and the editor of three books: Philosophy of History after Hayden White (2013), Hayden White's The Fiction of Narrative (2010), and René Girard's Mimesis and Theory (2008). Professor Doran holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University, California and a PhD in General and Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III.