N. Cronk and E. Décultot, Inventions of Enlightenment Since 1800. Concepts of Lumières, Enlightenment and Aufklärung

Inventions of Enlightenment Since 1800: Concepts of Lumières, Enlightenment and Aufklärung

By Élisabeth Décultot & Nicholas Cronk

Enlightenment values, including an emphasis on human rights and belief in rationalism and progress, aspire to be universals, yet at the same time they are concepts grounded in the eighteenth century. Since 1800, debates about the concepts of Enlightenment, Lumière, Aufklärung have determined how we define modern notions of liberal culture.

Important contribution to modern debates about the enduring importance of Enlightenment values.

Presents a comparative view of the Enlightenment not limited to France and England, but including Germany, Italy and Russia.

Shows how the Enlightenment cannot be understood with an awareness of these debates about its definition.

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Table of Contents:

Introduction: Nicholas Cronk (Oxford) / Elisabeth Décultot (Halle) Introduction: les Lumières après les Lumières? Pourquoi une histoire des notions de Lumières, d’Enlightenment et d’Aufklärung entre 1800 et 1980

Christian Helmreich (Halle) Victor Cousin et la philosophie des Lumières Elisabeth Décultot (Halle) Alexis de Tocqueville et Hermann Hettner, 1856: deux historiens face au dix-huitième siècle Daniel Weidner (Halle) Unveiling or inventing the Enlightenment? Bruno Bauer, the political theology of radical critique and the construction of Enlightenment in the Vormärz epoch Francesca Iannelli (Rome) Understanding, radicalizing and illuminating the Enlightenment: Hegel’s use of Lumières and Aufklärung for an enlightened philosophy Stéphane Zékian (Lyon) Les Lumières à l’épreuve des concours: le cas du prix d’éloquence à l’Académie française (1831-1904) Brian W. Young (Oxford) Afyer Carlyle: ‘Enlightenment’ in Victorian Britain Avi Lifschitz (Oxford) Germanizing the Enlightenment: Wilhelm Dilthey’s Aufklärung Nicholas Cronk (Oxford) Lumières in France: the contribution of Gustave Lanson and his pupils Andrew Kahn (Oxford) The theme of Enlightenment in Russian historiography, 1860-1900 Mike Rottmann (Halle) The dilemma of Enlightenment: German, Jewish and antisemitic constructions of Aufklärung in the nineteenth century James Schmidt (Boston) Nihilism, Enlightenment, and the ‘new failure of nerve’: arguments about Enlightenment in New York and Los Angeles, 1941-1947 Ruggero Sciuto (Oxford) Ideas in action: Franco Venturi’s Settecento Gregory S. Brown (Las Vegas) The question of Peter Gay’s Enlightenment: between ‘heavenly city’ and the ‘brute facts of political life’ (1948-1956) Daniel Fulda (Halle) ‘Die Zeit der Aufklärung ist wieder da’: activist appropriations of the Enlightenment in the Hegelian Left and in eighteenth-century studies in the GDR

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Élisabeth Décultot is Humboldt-Professor of German literature at Martin Luther University Halle and Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies (IZEA). Her research focuses on 18th-19th century literature and the history of scholarly practices in the Early Modern period, with particular attention to European knowledge transfers.

Nicholas Cronk is Professor of European Enlightenment Studies, University of Oxford, and Director of the Voltaire Foundation. As general editor of the Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, he has overseen the completion of the print edition in 205 volumes, and he is now directing the creation of Voltaire Online, the first definitive digital edition.

With contributions from: Christian Helmreich (Halle), Daniel Weidner (Halle), Francesca Iannelli (Rome), Stéphane Zékian (Lyon), Brian W. Young (Oxford), Avi Lifschitz (Oxford), Andrew Kahn (Oxford), Mike Rottmann (Halle), James Schmidt (Boston), Ruggero Sciuto (Oxford), Gregory S. Brown (Las Vegas), and Daniel Fulda (Halle).

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The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.