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- Title
ADDRESSING THE AGE-OLD QUESTION OF HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY IN DANIEL DEFOE'S MERE NATURE DELINEATED: OR, A BODY WITHOUT A SOUL.
- Authors
CULEA, MIHAELA
- Abstract
This article discusses the concern with the improvement or perfectibility of human nature in eighteenth-century English society and the necessity of its encouragement considering the prevalence of human degeneration at different levels: intellectual, moral, social, political or cultural. After a brief presentation of the philosophical and literary background of the perfectibility debates, we look into Daniel Defoe's literary representation of human improvement and degeneration in his Mere Nature Delineated: or, a Body without a Soul (1726). Defoe's pamphlet had its roots in a real case of human imperfection or degradation, namely in Peter the Wild Boy's story, which gave him the opportunity to criticize his contemporaries' vices and failures.
- Subjects
DEFOE, Daniel, ca. 1661-1731; MERE Nature Delineated: Or a Body without a Soul (Book); PAMPHLETS; IMPERFECTION in literature; FERAL children in literature; LITERATURE; NOBLE savage; POLITICAL satire
- Publication
Brno Studies in English, 2013, Vol 39, Issue 1, p199
- ISSN
0524-6881
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5817/BSE2013-1-11