History, romance and the “philosophical narrative” in the British Enlightenment

• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, João de Azevedo e Dias
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/69132
• topic: History; novel; narrative; the Enlightenment; David Hume; Henry Fielding.; Historia; novella; narrativa; la Ilustración; David Hume; Henry Fielding; História; Romance; Narrativa; Iluminismo; David Hume; Henry Fielding

This article articulates some arguments concerning the function of historiographical and novelistic narratives in the eighteenth century. It suggests that they shared some key elements – namely a pedagogical-civilizing purpose and a set of common rhetorical devices – that shaped what could be called “philosophical narrative”. Following this assumption, the “British Enlightenment” – understood as a literary, political and social program and a matrix for the production and circulation of historiographical, essayistic and novelistic texts in the 1700s – is used as a basis for examining the eighteenth century literary context and contemporary authors such as David Hume and Henry Fielding.