Ο δέκατος όγδοος αιώνας [The Eighteenth Century]

This is the fourth volume of the nine-volume series entitled The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, which provides a comprehensive historical account of Western literary criticism from classical antiquity to the present day, and discusses both literary theory and its critical praxis. Undertaking to present the theoretical and methodological paths of literary studies from classical antiquity to the dawn of the 21st century, this nine-volume series constitutes an impressive critical endeavour as far as its academic erudition and methodological rigour are concerned, and comes to fill an important gap in the literature, a collective reference work which summarizes in a comprehensive and detailed manner views and controversies often with a critical eye.

The fourth volume, entitled The Eighteenth Century, is a comprehensive account of the history of literary criticism and theory in Britain and continental Europe between 1660 and the end of the 18th century. This is not just a chronological survey, but also a multi-disciplinary study of how, in the beginning of the modern era, the understanding of literature, literary genres, and literary criticism published in journals was shaped by developments in philosophy, the natural sciences, linguistics, art and social history in general. During this period, which was marked by the decisive influence of the Enlightenment, literary theory was emancipated from classical poetics and rhetoric, and literary criticism was established as a profession in its own right. The volume is supplemented with extensive bibliographies and indexes.