FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W1540139411> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W1540139411 startingPage "183" @default.
• W1540139411 abstract "While erotic writing may appear to modern readers a strange vehicle for moral philosophy, John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, not unlike other British novels of the eighteenth century, appropriates various methods and concepts associated with this theoretical tradition. (1) From Cleland's standpoint, the novel, at its best, functions as an extension of epistemology, a knowledge practice central to the largely empirical moral philosophies of his day. In an enthusiastic review, he praises the epistemological complexity of Tobias Smollett's Peregrine Pickle, citing such sophistication as the key characteristic of a small but distinguished class of novels: For as the matter of them is chiefly taken from nature, from adventures, real or imaginary, but familiar, practical, and probable to be met with in the course of life, they may serve as pilot's charts, or maps of those parts of the world, which every one may chance to travel through; and in this light they are public benefits. (2) The moral utility of the novel, according to Cleland, consists largely in its ability to sketch out empirical particulars, or the discernible phenomena of common life. The novel, much like a naturalist's observations or travel writing, (3) documents experience, but it does so in regard to familiar rather than foreign locales and through imagination rather than direct observation. Its epistemology lays no claim to scientific objectivity but serves as a rough guide to possible actions, encounters, and results--as an introduction to the probabilities of experience. Not surprisingly given his general stance on the novel, Cleland casts his own novel as a memoir, a form allowing the narrator, a former prostitute named Fanny, to reflect on and map out her past sexual experiences. From the outset, Fanny describes her memoir as an epistemological project aiming to derive probable knowledge of sexuality from the evidence of sensation and reflection. Adopting a methodology in line with that of any good empiricist, she promises to detail sensations accurately, to paint situations such as they actually rose to [her] in nature. (4) Moreover, she distinguishes herself from others of her unhappy profession on the point of understanding. Whereas prostitutes in general avoid reflexion, looking upon this reputed basis of moral agency as a harbinger of sexual inhibition and guilt, and thus as their capital enemy, she has practiced close observation in order to cultivate an of sexuality. She has not only made an experiment of herself; her understanding extends well beyond knowledge of her own tastes to a general estimation of the sexual characters and manners of the world (1). Her memoir will chronicle sexual dispositions, acts, experiments, and outcomes; and she, having already attained true love and economic prosperity, stands as living proof of her own good judgment--the ultimate happy outcome of the narrative. (5) One could, of course, understand Fanny's concern with particulars as a thin porn premise, as Cleland's flimsy excuse to jump from one graphic sexual episode to another. (6) However, the novel more than delivers on its initial claims of epistemological complexity. In highly nuanced ways, Cleland draws on Locke's by then familiar, if not popular, theories of association, probability, and the social contract to lend coherence to his sexual epistemology. (7) Working at once on taxonomic and epistemic levels, Cleland's epistemology charts the dispositions of sexual agents against the general structure of knowledge, linking the problem of association to sociality in much the same manner as Locke's. (8) One could also regard the obviously comic effects of Fanny's preface and ensuing narrative as contributing to a simple negation of the moral values promoted by the dominant literary-philosophical culture of Cleland's time. (9) Such an assertion, however, overlooks Cleland's own theory of the novel, which ties the comic both to the formation of judgment and to moral improvement. …" @default.
• W1540139411 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W1540139411 creator A5065936553 @default.
• W1540139411 date "2003-06-22" @default.
• W1540139411 modified "2023-09-26" @default.
• W1540139411 title "How Fanny Comes to Know: Sensation, Sexuality, and the Epistemology of the Closet in Cleland's Memoirs" @default.
• W1540139411 hasPublicationYear "2003" @default.
• W1540139411 type Work @default.
• W1540139411 sameAs 1540139411 @default.
• W1540139411 citedByCount "2" @default.
• W1540139411 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W1540139411 hasAuthorship W1540139411A5065936553 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C107038049 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C111472728 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C11413529 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C144024400 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C166957645 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C168725872 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C177897776 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C2778288042 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C2779231336 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C41008148 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C42133412 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C43236755 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C52119013 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C107038049 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C111472728 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C11413529 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C124952713 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C138885662 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C142362112 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C144024400 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C166957645 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C168725872 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C177897776 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C2778288042 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C2779231336 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C41008148 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C42133412 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C43236755 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C52119013 @default.
• W1540139411 hasConceptScore W1540139411C95457728 @default.
• W1540139411 hasLocation W15401394111 @default.
• W1540139411 hasOpenAccess W1540139411 @default.
• W1540139411 hasPrimaryLocation W15401394111 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W1483141717 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W1546583821 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W167305572 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2004522743 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2069857714 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2129741618 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W219207701 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2430019867 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2480854616 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2483744008 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2484164179 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2731589900 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2764260102 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2883069304 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2899853114 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2991841240 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W308725897 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W334186325 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2225721827 @default.
• W1540139411 hasRelatedWork W2742218619 @default.
• W1540139411 hasVolume "44" @default.
• W1540139411 isParatext "false" @default.
• W1540139411 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W1540139411 magId "1540139411" @default.
• W1540139411 workType "article" @default.