The Other Enlightenment
Self-Estrangement, Race, and Gender
Zusammenfassung
Challenging widespread misunderstandings, this book shows that central to key enlightenment texts was the practice of estranging taken-for-granted prejudices by adopting the perspective of Others.
The enlightenment’s key progenitors, led by Montesquieu, Voltaire and Diderot, were more empiricist than rationalist, and more critical than utopian. Moreover, each was an artful exponent of the ‘proto-postmodernist’ practice of asking Europeans to review what they considered unquestionable through the eyes of Others: Persians, women, Tahitians, Londoners, natives and naïves, the blind, and even imaginary extra-terrestrials. This book aims to show that this self-estrangement, as a means to gain critical distance from one’s taken-for-granted assumptions, was central to the enlightenment, and remains vital for critical and constructive sociopolitical thinking today.
Schlagworte
Gender Slavery colonialism Gender studies cultural studies Postcolonial theory continental philosophy feminist theory European cultural history French literary studiesKeywords
critical theory enlightenment sexuality race- 1–20 Introduction 1–20
- 43–62 Paris-Persia 43–62
- 157–164 Conclusion 157–164
- 165–176 Bibliography 165–176
- 177–180 Index 177–180
- 181–182 About the Author 181–182