Edmund Burke and Ireland Aesthetics, Politics and the Colonial Sublime [Hardcover]

This study argues that Burke's influential early writings on aesthetics are intimately connected to his politics.This study of Burke's engagement with Irish politics and culture argues that Burke's influential early writings on aesthetic are intimately connected to his political concerns. The concept of the sublime, at the heart of his aesthetic, addressed itself to the experience of terror, a spectre that haunts Burke's political imagination throughout his career. Burke's preoccupation with violence, sympathy and pain allowed him to explore the dark side of the Enlightenment. This major reassessment of a key political and cultural figure will appeal to Irish studies specialists, Political theorists and Romanticists.This study of Burke's engagement with Irish politics and culture argues that Burke's influential early writings on aesthetic are intimately connected to his political concerns. The concept of the sublime, at the heart of his aesthetic, addressed itself to the experience of terror, a spectre that haunts Burke's political imagination throughout his career. Burke's preoccupation with violence, sympathy and pain allowed him to explore the dark side of the Enlightenment. This major reassessment of a key political and cultural figure will appeal to Irish studies specialists, Political theorists and Romanticists.Burke's influential early writings on aesthetic are intimately connected to his political concerns according to this study of his engagement with Irish politics and culture. The heart of his aesthetic addressed itself to the experience of terror, a spectre that haunts Burke's political imagination throughout his career. Burke's preoccupation with violence, sympathy and pain actually allowed him to explore the dark side of the Enlightenment. This major reassessment of a key political and cultural figure appeals to Irish studies specialists, political theorists and Romanticists.Introduction: Edmund Burke and the colonial sublime; Part I. The Politics oflSÊ