Literary Public Sphere and Publicness in Rasselas

Abstract

Abstract: Rasselas, one of Samuel Johnson’s own favorite works, is the only novel he has ever written. It is focused on two universal and public issues of “happiness” and “the choice of life.” Johnson explicates his own thinking concerning social consensus and moral concerns in this autobiographical novel. It immediately generated a wide discussion on its concerns among the readership. In the ensuing public opinion, literary public sphere came into being. Evidently, Rasselas offers us an ideal text, in which we may not only investigate the interaction between literary public sphere and publicness, but also explores how Johnson manages to transcend his personal thought into social consensus and construct publicness. This process embodies the main channel through which the Enlightenment ideas were disseminated.

Key words: Rasselas, Samuel Johnson, literature, public sphere, publicness

Hu Zhenming. Literary Public Sphere and Publicness in Rasselas[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2019, 41(2): 62-74.

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