Supritha Rajan, University of Rochester: "Temperament and the Art of Reading"

Sponsor: Victorian Literature and Culture Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University  

Abstract

This talk explores the continuing importance of the temperaments for distinguishing disciplinary practices and personae subsequent to the Enlightenment. Focusing on the genre of the “characteristic” as it relates to Kant’s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View and George Eliot’s The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, the talk outlines points of overlap between Kant’s and Eliot’s notions of a philosophic and aesthetic temperament. It concludes by turning to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and examines how notions of temperament pose relevance to the novel’s content and our critical approaches to it.