Eighteenth Century Studies by John Bender

     The 18 th century period is known to us as a period of Enlightenment, where the main highlight was on the progress achieved through reason, redemption of mankind from the chains of ignorance and the rejection of traditionalism. During this period Immanuel Kant one of the great philosophers of 18 th century came up with the phrase “Sapave Ande” (to have courage to reason) which paved the way for the entire European democracy. John Locke also a leading figure of Enlightenment defined Enlightenment according to empiricist concept - that we have absolutely nothing in the mind that we have not experienced through the sense. Hence with the major influences of Kant and Lock all the literary works that were produced in the 18th century were highly influenced by the Enlightenment movement.

    Due to the influence of Enlightenment movement the critical analysis of 18th century seems merely a repetition of Enlightenment movement.Therefore, Enlightenment acts as a critical frame of reference to judge the studies of 18 th century studies. So, to redraw the boundary of the 18 th century studies, John Bender believes that the critical frame of reference for 18 th century studies has to be changed by emphasizing on new Historicism, Culture Materialism and Feminism. John Bender emphasize on New Historicism, Cultural Materialism and Feminism because they have changed the critical frame of reference for 18 th century studies and so boundary has been redrawn. This critical frame of reference has been changed, first of all by rejecting Maynard Mack’s Elitist approach and New Critical Ironic approach and second of all by discouraging Kantian aesthetic, Schlegel’s organicism and new criticism’s disinterestedness. Maynard Mack’s Elitist approach gives importance to wit, common sense and the good taste of gentleman like Swift, Pope, Fielding and Johnson; and new critical Ironic approach asserts irony to be the elitist trope. So, John Bender in order to redraw the boundary of the 18 th century studies argue against these approaches because they do not recognize that power is not merely the possession of elites it is also shared by the marginalized and disorderly groups in any given society. Here, he includes Foucault’s notion of power that power is never fixed and it keeps on changing. As Bender attempts to render the boundary of 18 th century studies by focusing on New Historicism, he rejects Kantian aestheticism, Schlegel’s organism and New Criticism’s disinterestedness. According to him Enlightenment is highly influenced by the idea of satirists like Pope, Swift, Dylan and Johnson. But to some extent it is also influenced by the idea of romanticism (that focuses on aestheticism) brought about by Coleridge and Wordsworth.

    Later Kant categorized aesthetics by giving equal importance to both reason and emotion. That is when we find something aesthetically beautiful, both our reason and emotion is at work. This he calls intuition in other words any object can have aesthetic beauty only when it appeals to our intuition.
Now, Friedrich Schlegel redirected this Kantian aesthetic concept more towards organism i.e. he focused more on emotion by removing the mediation of brain or neglecting utilitarianism (found in Kantian aestheticism. Schlegel, being complete Romantic philosophers broke poetry in various organs and built the critical analysis on symmetrical relationship between the organs and this is what ‘organicism’ means.
Supporting this Kantian aestheticism and Schlegel’s organicism later developed New Criticism also agreed in the concept of Art for Art’s Sake. According to them, any work of art having aesthetic beauty should be critically analyzed without being biased or partial. So the criticism should be disinterested. This concept of disinterestedness which developed in the 18 th century Enlightenment period supports elitism as said by Bender. So this concept should be avoided to redraw the boundary.

    To redraw the boundary of 18 th century studies John Bender has attacked the four main categories of enlightenment aesthetic autonomy, authorship, disinterestedness and gendered sexuality by focusing on New Historicism, Cultural Materialism and Feminism.

    The first category that is dealt by John Bender is aesthetic autonomy of 18 th century literature. Enlightenment defines aesthetic as an autonomous that it has nothing to do with socio- cultural politics. Because of this disclosure with other discourses it is confined with in the world of sense, intuition and imagination. Literature not only from historical, scientific or argumentative discourses but also from literature of 18 th century also had no social- political standing and it seems as if it has no ideological bearing. But John Bender argues that it is not so. Applying the trans- disciplinary approach that came in the late 20 th century, Bender challenges the way of thinking about the aesthetic and claim that aestheticism is merely a carpet to cover up all the ugly sides of the 18 th century. Transdisciplinary approaches break the boundary of literature and brought different disciplines to study literature. Now literature embodies scientific documents, forgery cases, legal documents etc. And so Enlightenment category that assumes aesthetic as autonomous remains no more autonomous rather it becomes social and cultural document.

    The second category of enlightenment is authorship. Enlightenment defines author as a universal category, it is transhistorical. And the intention of author to his text can be found in a significant degree. In that time author was treated as creator, director and producer. The concept of authorship started from seventeenth century. But to deconstruct this category Bender brings Foucault. Foucault subverts the concept that author genius confers his identity. During eighteenth century it was believed that author’s uniqueness gets manifested in his work and this manifestation gives identity to authors. Whatever the author writes it is the product of his genius and creativity. An author is free from any ideology any contextual factors. However Foucault forwards the argument that simulacrum, the everyday images, encountered by the author has profound influence in his sensibility and gets reflected in his work. An author is never free from this simulacrum and his work is not devoid of this simulacrum. The concept of authorship by Foucault asserts that author is always in the clutches of the cultural politics governing him. His ideologies get manifested in his work rather than his genius. Foucault concept of authorship is highly instrumental for the development of New Historicism.

    The third category of Enlightenment is disinterestedness. This concept of disinterestedness in 18 th century came from Kant’s idea of disinterestedness. According to him literature should be always interest free. Authors or critics ideology has nothing to do with his creative or critical works. But this concept according to John Bender is merely abubble because 18 th century that claim to be disinterested is not un-gendered but it is highly masculine. In the name if Enlightenment women were highly marginalized. They were excluded from the mainstream literary canon. So with the help of Feminist approach Bender claims the idea of disinterestedness is related to Bourgeois Capitalism. Feminist critics have strongly gone through this category. They challenge the disinterestedness and claimed in the name of disinterestedness they are imposing the patriarchy.

    The forth and the final category of enlightenment is gendered sexuality. According to this concept sexuality is biological contract and so it is not ideologically colored. But Bender in order to recapitulate the boundary brings Foucault’s concept of sexuality. In his book The History of Sexuality, Foucault asserts that sexuality is socially constructed and historically contingent. Because of the social construction it could not give reliable truth. It is constructed by those who have power and it operates to valorize that power. In eighteenth century males were in power so they made sexuality as biologically construction and women were marginalized and excluded from mainstream literary canon.

    Thus, John Bender deconstructs the four enlightenment framework by bringing New Historicism, Cultural Materialism and Feminism. And so now new history of enlightenment also embodies the view and contributed of females because gender is not biological construct. No criticism and creative writing can be free from Scio- political of the time so there is no intention of author in his writing because author is the product of society. This helps to know these is no difference between literature and other social discourse because aesthetics is not autonomous, it is culturally and ideologically contaminated.