Kommentar |
References to ‘the Enlightenment’ are ubiquitous in contemporary debates, in politics and in journalism. It is frequently equated with secularism and toleration, rights, equality and ‘modernity’. But what was Aufklärung, who were the lumières, and was there an English enlightenment? In this seminar, we will explore the history of the long eighteenth century with a focus on the European intellectual movement known as Enlightenment, featuring the ideas of the people involved as well as the social context in which they lived and acted. We will examine central themes and concepts (such as reason and religion, sociability and improvement); investigate the geographies of Enlightenment (in different national and transnational contexts); and ask whether we should refer to one or multiple Enlightenments. This seminar will familiarise students with recent historiographical developments, emphasising the value of a comparative approach that appreciates the diversity and polyphony of the phenomenon known as Enlightenment, and enable them to scrutinise claims about Enlightenment legacies from a historian’s perspective. Term papers (Hausarbeiten) may be written in either German or English.
Einschreibezeitraum für Studierende ab dem 2. Semester: 13.02.2023, 12:00 Uhr bis 17.03.2023, 16:00 Uhr Loszeitpunkt: 17.03.2023, 16:10 Uhr |
Literatur |
Dan Edelstein, The Enlightenment: A Genealogy (Chicago, 2010); Carla Hesse, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern (Princeton; Oxford, 2001); Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (Oxford, 2001); Sarah Knott and Barbara Taylor (eds.), Women, Gender and Enlightenment (London, 2005); Karen O'Brien, Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge, 2009); Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 2013); Sankar Muthu, Enlightenment Against Empire (Princeton, 2003); Anthony Pagden, The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters (Oxford, 2013); Roy Porter and Mikuláš Teich (eds.), The Enlightenment in National Context (Cambridge, 1981); John Robertson, The Enlightenment. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2015); Ritchie Robertson, The Enlightenment. The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680–1790 (London, 2020); Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Die Aufklärung: Europa im 18. Jahrhundert, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 2011); Adam Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment (Cambridge, 2004). |