
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Pure Light Pure Light
-
Notes Notes
-
-
-
Coda: ‘There is no end to machinery’
Get access-
Published:April 2020
Cite
Abstract
Following a brief summary of the preceding arguments in the book, the coda turns to a trilogy of essays by Thomas Carlyle written in the final years of the 1820s – ‘State of German Literature’ (1827), ‘Burns’ (1828) and ‘Signs of the Times’ (1829). These works postulate a Britain riven between the inhuman mores of Enlightenment and a degraded popular culture, looking to ideal truth (‘pure light’) and its secular expression in poetry as a means of salvation. ‘Signs of the Times’, notably, was published in the last issue of the Edinburgh Review edited by Francis Jeffrey and provides a subversive counterpoint to and unravelling of the journal’s Whig ideology. Taking up a critique of the Scottish Enlightenment that had been made by John Gibson Lockhart in Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk (1819) and in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Carlyle attempts to recover a sense of ideal truth from what he viewed as a culture of dry rationalism. Improvement, in this account, had suffocated Scotland. Carlyle’s analysis of what he calls the ‘mechanical’ and the ‘dynamical’ in opposition to one another (rather than dialectical tension) effectively performs an elision of Enlightenment and Romanticism. This provides a counterpoint for the book’s very different reading of literary texts that are adapting cultures of improvement within a set of changing historical circumstances.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
April 2023 | 2 |
May 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 4 |
November 2023 | 1 |
February 2024 | 3 |
August 2024 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.