Minds in Motion

Imagining Empiricism in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Literature

Anne M. Thell

2017
286 pages
ISBN 9781611488272
Transits

The central claim of Minds in Motion is that British travel writing of the long eighteenth century functions as an epistemological playing field where authors test empiricist models of engagement with the world while simultaneously seeking out the role of the self and the imagination in producing knowledge. Whether exploring the relationship between the senses and the mind, the narrative viability of experimental detachment, or the literary dynamics of virtual witnessing, eighteenth-century travel authors persistently confront their positionality and raise difficult questions about the nature and value of first-hand experience. In one way or another, they also complicate empiricist ideals by exploring the limits of individual perception and the role of the imagination in generating and relating knowledge.

While the genre is often viewed as either numbingly documentary or non-literary and commercial, travel literature actually operates at the front line of the period's intellectual developments, illustrating both how individual writers grapple with philosophical ideals and how these ideals filter into the lives of ordinary people. Indeed, travel literature directly engages the scientific and philosophical concerns of the period, while it is also widely, avidly read; as such, it offers models for cognitive and rhetorical practices that are evaluated and either embraced or rejected by readers (in a process of identification not unlike that which occurs in early English fiction). Moreover, because eighteenth-century travel literature is so crucial to the development of so many fields - from botany to the novel - it illustrates vividly the divisive energies of discipline and genre formation while also archiving the shared aims and methods of what will become discrete fields of study. Travelogues as diverse as Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World (1666) and Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) reveal the epistemological circuitry of the eighteenth century and historicize the absorption of the philosophical tendencies that have come to define modernity.

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Reviews

"In a series of compelling case studies, Thell shows authors of travel narratives repeatedly encountering the central problem of any empirical project: how to relay a personal, particular experience in a way that renders it public and universal, how to invent knowledge that can exist outside the viewpoint of the knower."
- Sean Silver, Los Angeles Book Review

"Minds in Motion is a well-written book that offers an important intervention in studies of travel writing, the history of science, and the prehistory of fiction. [It] will be of interest to scholars and students of these subjects working outside as well as within literary studies, outside as well as within British studies, and outside as well as within the eighteenth century."
- Michelle Burnham, Santa Clara University

"[Minds in Motion] is a nuanced and careful study of selected eighteenth-century travelogues.... [It] is a well-researched, deftly-argued, and refreshing study of various travelogues. Thell also handles complex topics with grace, and creates a text which is likely to be highly accessible to students as well as academics."
- Anna K. Sagal, Heartland Community College

"In Minds in Motion: Imagining Empiricism in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Literature, Thell compellingly connects travel literature, the imagination, and the concept of motion. [Minds in Motion] is a memorable book."
- Cynthia Wall, University of Virginia

"I emphatically recommend..."
- Eighteenth-Century Studies, Fall 2020, Vol. 54, No. 1

About the author:

Anne M. Thell is assistant professor of English literature at National University of Singapore.

Distributed by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

Paperback: 9781611488296; eBook: 9781611488289