Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- 10 Essayistic Personae and Personhood
- 11 Clubs and Coffeehouses: Sociability and the Essay
- 12 Loose Sallies of the Mind: Distraction and the Essay
- 13 The Essay and the Rise of the Novel
- 14 The Periodical Essay and the Rise of Literary Professionalism
- 15 On Books: The Bibliographical Essay
- 16 Satire and the Essay
- 17 Food and the Essay
- 18 Forms of Thought: Dreams, Reverie, and the Essay
- 19 The Urban Familiar Essay of the Romantic Era
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Essayistic Personae and Personhood
from Part II - The Great Age of the British Essay
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2024
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- 10 Essayistic Personae and Personhood
- 11 Clubs and Coffeehouses: Sociability and the Essay
- 12 Loose Sallies of the Mind: Distraction and the Essay
- 13 The Essay and the Rise of the Novel
- 14 The Periodical Essay and the Rise of Literary Professionalism
- 15 On Books: The Bibliographical Essay
- 16 Satire and the Essay
- 17 Food and the Essay
- 18 Forms of Thought: Dreams, Reverie, and the Essay
- 19 The Urban Familiar Essay of the Romantic Era
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines how essayistic personae enabled writers and readers to understand personhood as a means of making a unity out of multiplicity. It draws on Thomas Hobbes’s theory of the person to track how essayistic personae both depicted corporate personhood and themselves served as corporate persons, allowing many writers, real or imagined, to write as one. It also uses Locke’s theory of personhood to show how essayistic personae present conscious persons as contingent unities imposed upon multitudinous thoughts and experiences. Essayistic personae not only extended personhood to non-human beings, such as corporations and animals, they also drew attention to the limited nature of personhood for many human beings, including married women and enslaved people.
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- The Cambridge History of the British Essay , pp. 137 - 151Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024