The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant

Robert Doran is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester, New York. He is the author of The Ethics of Theory: Philosophy, History, Literature (2016) and the editor of three books: Philosophy of History after Hayden White (2013), Hayden White's The Fiction of Narrative (2010), and René Girard's Mimesis and Theory (2008). Professor Doran holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University, California and a PhD in General and Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III.

• Introduction; Part I. Longinus' Theory of Sublimity: 1. Defining the Longinian sublime; 2. Longinus' five sources sublimity; 3. Longinus on sublimity in nature and culture; Part II. Sublimity and Modernity: 4. Boileau: the birth of a concept; 5. Dennis: terror and religion; 6. Burke: sublime individualism; Part III. The Sublimity of the Mind: Kant: 7. The Kantian sublime in 1764: 'Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime'; 8. The sublime in the 'Critique of Practical Reason'; 9. The sublime in the 'Critique of the Power of Judgment'; 10. Judging nature as a magnitude: the Mathematically Sublime; 11. Judging nature as a power: the Dynamically Sublime; 12. Sublimity and culture in Kant.

'I cannot say enough how good I think this book is. It is the best discussion of the origins and establishing of the sublime and is wonderful in its scholarly deployment of such a wide range of authors and texts. Doran's treatment of Kant is of the greatest interest. Kant's mature theory is examined in the context of his broader moral philosophy as well as through its presentation in the Critique of Judgment.' Paul Crowther, National University of Ireland, Galway