Search

Politeness [ Taste & Manners / Education ]

… Abstract In the eighteenth century, the term ‘politeness’ became a powerful, if controverted, tool for thinking about and understanding social order and also for … though practice often fell short of the ideal. Theorists disagreed about the fundamental psychology underlying politeness: whether it embodied a human capacity for virtue or it was a sophisticated expression of human egoism. In either case, the attractiveness of politeness grew out of contemporary developments in urban living, class aspiration, print culture and consumption …

Laughter [ Communication ]

… laughing could communicate anything from warmth to outright hostility; a well-placed chuckle could be the epitome of politeness, while an uncontrolled guffaw – especially triggered by a ‘lowbrow’ joke – was anything but. Laughter was … aspirations inherent in sociability quite like laughter. Practices > Communication Keywords Laughter humour Wit Taste Politeness impoliteness Manners civil society In May 1787, author-turned cleric Thomas Monro devoted an issue of his short-lived …

Joseph Addison [ Art and Literature / Politics ]

… Art and Literature People > Politics Keywords Addison Whig Periodical essay Tatler Spectator Coffeehouse Literature Wit Politeness Manners Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was an important theorist of English sociability in the early eighteenth … Ashley Cooper the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Addison helped to develop the ideological foundations for a ‘culture of politeness’ that would achieve hegemony in the age of Whig oligarchy. 3 2 Lawrence Klein, ‘Joseph Addison’s Whiggism’, in … in the Long Eighteenth Century (Newark: Univ. of Delaware Press, 2005). 3 Lawrence Klein, Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness: Moral Discourse and Cultural Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994). …

Richard Steele [ Art and Literature / Politics ]

… Richard Steele was one of the most important and controversial figures of early eighteenth-century sociability and politeness. Perhaps best known for his contributions to periodical literature, Steele achieved fame for the style and … view of who constituted the ‘people’. People > Art and Literature People > Politics Keywords Periodical Print culture Politeness Army Morality Politics Slavery Women Theatre Wit This article will not repeat data easily accessible elsewhere … relations between the sexes than about the West Indian slave system. 20   Although in some ways a leader of the field in politeness, he nevertheless shared many of the limiting assumptions of his contemporaries about who it was important to …

Beau Nash [ Fashion ]

… downplaying his moral ambiguity. People > Fashion Keywords Bath Fashion Gaming Social codes Manners Master of Ceremonies Politeness Refinement Spa Wit Richard Nash, who was born in Swansea in 1674, has gone down in history as Beau Nash – the … 6 Christopher Anstey, The New Bath Guide, 1766, ed. Annick Cossic (Bern: Peter Lang, 2010). 7 See Lawrence Klein, ‘Politeness and the Interpretation of the British Eighteenth Century’, The Historical Journal (45, 2002), p. 879. Despite … Michele Cohen has demonstrated that ‘the focus on gender relations was a characteristic feature of chivalry as it was of politeness’ in ‘‘Manners‘ Make the Man: Politeness, Chivalry, and the Construction of Masculinity, 1750-1830‘ Journal of …

Solitude [ Feelings and Emotions ]

… of one another. Concepts > Feelings and Emotions Keywords loneliness Religion Social relations Conversation Gender roles Politeness melancholy privacy In 1711 Joseph Addison spoke of his vision for his new periodical, The Spectator . In his … and necessary for civil society. The eighteenth century was a culture built on the ideals of company, association, and politeness, where men and women were expected to maintain a careful balance between engagement and seclusion in their … an act that might in other circumstances be perceived as rude. 12 Lawrence E. Klein, Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness: Moral Discourses and Cultural Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge University Press, …