Politeness In Literature

Focusing on taste, which was at core of a nexus of politeness, a point on which many historians of eighteenth century British culture and literature virtually converge, the role of the literary culture and the printed press in educating the general reading public in the matters of taste, refinement and informing the character is explored. Moreover, such pillars of the public sphere as the Tatler and the Spectator increasingly sought to educate the emergent bourgeois classes in the matters of refined taste, polite manners and opinion, since in Robert Jones’ words: “taste served as a qualification for participating in eighteenth century cultural discourse”. With significant expansion of the middle classes, with newly found wealth fuelling the consumption of the luxury items for pleasure, the culture of politeness enabled “upstart people” to climb up the social ladder by adhering to a new set of elaborate rules

The triangle between folk-culture, written sources and antiquarian collection is explored in the context of British printing culture. Commencing with Montesquieu’s “The Spirit of the Laws”, the link between the climates, the customs and the forms of the government acquired popularity, gained common currency in Britain, on the continent and in the Russian Empire, spawning numerous “climatologist” theories. The profound impact of Montesquieu’s ideas and his influence on the subsequent speculation on “a national character” is explored in the context of French and British public discussions in printed sources as well as reception of his ideas in the Russian