Enlightenment And Emancipation

"Enlightenment" and "Emancipation" as separate issues have received much critical attention, but the complicated interaction of these two great shaping forces of modernity has never been scrutinized in depth. The Enlightenment has been represented in radically opposing ways: on the one hand, as the unshackling of the chains of superstition, custom, and usurped authority; on the other hand, in the Romantic period, but also more recently, as what Michel Foucault termed "the grate confinement," in which "mind-forged manacles" imprison the free and irrational spirit. The debate about the "Enlightenment project" remains a topical one, which can still arouse fierce passions. This collection of essays by distinguished scholars from many disciplines addresses the central question: "Was Enlightenment a force for emancipation?" Their responses, working from within and across history, political thought and economics, music, literature and aesthetics, art history and film, reveal unsuspected connections and divergences even between well-known figures and texts, in their turn suggesting the need for further inquiry in areas that turn out to be very far from closed. Major writings are considered in unusual juxtapositions; new figures of importance emerge and familiar texts are shown to embody strange and unexpected implications.Manning, Susan is the author of 'Enlightenment And Emancipation ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780838756195 and ISBN 0838756190.