Era of Enlightenment!?

Question

The concept of individuality played a major role in the culture of the 18th and early-19th centuries, though in somewhat different ways. Based upon your reading and analysis of the material, which time period - the 18th century (Enlightenment) or early-19th century (Romantic Period) - featured the greater emphasis on individuality? How is this emphasis displayed in the culture of your chosen time period? How does individuality factor into the religious and philosophical views of the time? How does the emphasis on individuality during the 18th century and/or early-19th century compare to the emphasis on individuality in today's world?

Answer 1

did you read what you were assigned?

This question allows for an argument either way.  I.E.  YOU need to make an argument based on your readings.  This is not a particularly difficult argument to construct.  Divide your texts into 2 piles: 18th century and 19th century.  Then decide in which pile do you think individuality is emphasized more.  Think of examples from the reading and get writing.  I will however, give you some examples to consider from these centuries:

18th:

Rousseau (Subjectivity-see his _Confessions_, his Social Contract,  his discourses)

Montesquieu (_Persan Letters_  _On the Sprit of Laws_)

Diderot (Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville)

19th Century Romanticism:

Victor Hugo

Alphonse de la Martine

Alphred de Musset

Théophile Gautier (see Mlle de Maupin)

Byron

Edgar Allen Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorn