Material Enlightenment：Women Writers and the Science of Mind, 1770-1830

Womenwritersplayedacentral,buthithertounder-recognised,roleinthedevelopmentofthephilosophyofmindanditspracticaloutworkingsinRomanticeraEngland,ScotlandandIreland.Thisbookfocusesonthewritingsandlivesoffiveleadingfigures-AnnaBarbauld,HonoraEdgeworth,HannahMore,ElizabethHamiltonandMariaEdgeworth-agroupofwomenwhodifferedprofoundlyintheirpolitical,religiousandsocialviewsbutwereneverthelessassociatedthroughcorrespondence,familytiesandasharedbeliefintheimportanceoffemaleeducation.Itshowshowthroughthephilosophicallanguageofmaterialityandembodimentthattheydevelopedandthe'enlighteneddomesticity'thattheyespousedtheytransformededucationalpracticeandmadesubstantialinterventionsintothesocialreformistpoliticsofthelateeighteenthandearlynineteenthcenturies.Alivetothemanifoldoverlapsbetweenemotional,andoftenreligious,experienceandexperimentinthedevelopingscienceofmindatthistime,thebookilluminatesthepotentialandthelimitsofdomesticEnlightenment,particularlyinprojectsofmoralandindustrial'improvement'andcastsnewlightonawidevarietyofotherfields:thehistoryofscience,earlypsychologyandreligion,reformistpoliticsandRomanticism,andhowallthesereflectedthepoliticalandsocialfalloutoftheFrenchRevolutioninthefirstyearsofthenineteenthcentury.JOANNAWHARTONisanEarlyCareerFellowatLichtenberg-Kolleg,theGöttingenInstituteforAdvancedStudyintheHumanitiesandSocialSciences.