Introduction: Latour and Eighteenth-Century Literary Studies

Tina Jane Lupton, Sean Silver, Adam Sneed

Abstract

Bruno Latour's formulation of modernity as a particular intertwining of persons
and things has shaped recent efforts to rethink the legacy of the Enlightenment. What is more, Latour has often reverted to the eighteenth century as a site of origins—whether it is for the sort of practices that characterize the modern laboratory, the social formations that are the objects of Actor-Network Theory generally, and the kinds of false conceptual breaks that obscure the nature of these very formations and practices. Scholars studying the literature ...Bruno Latour's formulation of modernity as a particular intertwining of persons
and things has shaped recent efforts to rethink the legacy of the Enlightenment. What is more, Latour has often reverted to the eighteenth century as a site of origins—whether it is for the sort of practices that characterize the modern laboratory, the social formations that are the objects of Actor-Network Theory generally, and the kinds of false conceptual breaks that obscure the nature of these very formations and practices. Scholars studying the literature ...
Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation
Volume57
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)165-179
ISSN0193-5380
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2016

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