Exploring the Enlightenment from Intellectual History and Critical Theory: A Case Study of Hybrid Methodologies in Literary Criticism

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on the methodological problems that arise when critical theory and intellectual history are brought together in the study of the Enlightenment. Taking my own PhD research as a case study, I explore the tension between the different conceptions of the Enlightenment employed by these methods, and assess the possibility of articulating them together in a single argument.