The Aesthetic Commonplace

The Aesthetic Commonplace is a study of the everyday as a region of overlooked value in the work of William Wordsworth, George Eliot, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Romantic poet, the realist novelist, and the modern philosopher are each separately associated with a commitment to the common, the ordinary, and the everyday as a vital resource for reflection on language, on feeling, on ethical insight, and social attunement. The Aesthetic Commonplaceis the first study to draw substantive lines of connection between Wittgenstein and the cultural and literary history of nineteenth century England. Tracing conceptual and formal affinities between the poet, thenovelist, and the philosopher, the book brings to light significant links between the intellectual history of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, making the case for a continuous cultural commitment to the aesthetic as a distinctive mode of investigating thought, feeling, and the everyday language upon which we depend for their articulation. Addressed to both literary studies and to philosophy, The Aesthetic Commonplace makes a compelling case for theinterdependence of form, concept, and emotion in the history and interpretive practices of both disciplines.

I myself, after reading The Aesthetic Commonplace, look forward with renewed pleasure to rereading George Eliot. George J. Leonard, San Francisco State University, Modern Philology
Her method has been remarkably consistent. I myself, after reading The Aesthetic Commonplace, look forward with renewed pleasure to rereading George Eliot. George J. Leonard, Modern Philology
The Aesthetic Commonplace is a carefully argued, detailed and very scholarly study. A. G. van den Broek, George Eliot Review
Nancy Yousef's The Aesthetic Commonplace sensitively and skilfully brings together William Wordsworth, George Eliot and Ludwig Wittgenstein as united by a common 'appeal' - an urgent call to pay attention to everyday language as a subject not merely overlooked, but as bearing ethical weight. Rachel Zimmerman, Forum for Modern Language Studies
I urge readers of this journal to spend some time with this brilliant and original book, and especially to see familiar features of Eliot's work revivified by Yousef's careful, moving, and philosophically precise style of close reading. Daniel Wright, Project Muse

Nancy Yousef is Professor of English at Rutgers University. Her scholarship focuses on the intersections between philosophical writing and literary form, and especially on the relationship between aesthetics, ethics, and the representation of emotions. A recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Center, she is the author of Romantic Intimacy (2013, winner of the Barricelli Prize) and IsolatedCases (2004), as well as essays on Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, and Dickens.

The Aesthetic Commonplace is a study of the everyday as a region of overlooked value in the work of William Wordsworth, George Eliot, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Romantic poet, the realist novelist, and the modern philosopher are each separately associated with a commitment to the common, the ordinary, and the everyday as a vital resource for reflection on language, on feeling, on ethical insight, and social attunement. The Aesthetic Commonplace isthe first study to draw substantive lines of connection between Wittgenstein and the cultural and literary history of nineteenth century England. Tracing conceptual and formal affinities between the poet, the novelist, and the philosopher, the book brings to light significant links between the intellectual history ofthe nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, making the case for a continuous cultural commitment to the aesthetic as a distinctive mode of investigating thought, feeling, and the everyday language upon which we depend for their articulation. Addressed to both literary studies and to philosophy, The Aesthetic Commonplace makes a compelling case for the interdependence of form, concept, and emotion in the history and interpretive practices of bothdisciplines.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.