Long before the guillotines of the 1789 Revolution brought a grisly political end to the ancien regime, Jay Caplan argues, the culture of absolutism had already perished. "In the King's Wake" traces the emergence of a post-absolutist culture across a wide range of works and genres: Saint-Simon's memoirs of Louis XIV and the Regency; Voltaire's first tragedy, "Oedipe;" Watteau's last great painting, "L'Enseigne de Gersaint;" the plays of Marivaux; and Casanova's "History of My Life." While absolutist culture had focused on value directly represented in people (e.g., those of noble blood)...
Long before the guillotines of the 1789 Revolution brought a grisly political end to the ancien regime, Jay Caplan argues, the culture of absolutism h...
Framed Narratives was first published in 1985. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.
The work of French philosophe Denis Diderot (1713-1784) has inspired conflicting reactions in those who encounter him. Diderot has been admired and despised; he has moved his readers and irritated them - often at the same time. His work continually shifts between mutually exclusive positions - neither of which provides an entirely...
Framed Narratives was first published in 1985. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again ...
During the early modern period the public postal systems became central pillars of the emerging public sphere. Despite the importance of the post in the transformation of communication, commerce and culture, little has been known about the functioning of the post or how it affected the lives of its users and their societies. In Postal culture in Europe, 1500-1800, Jay Caplan provides the first historical and cultural analysis of the practical conditions of letter-exchange at the dawn of the modern age. Caplan opens his analysis by exploring the economic, political, social and existential...
During the early modern period the public postal systems became central pillars of the emerging public sphere. Despite the importance of the post in t...
