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Article: The bourgeois public sphere and the concept of literature.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Criticism
- Article date:
- March 22, 2004
- Author:
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JURGEN HABERMAS'S CONCEPTUALIZATION of a bourgeois public sphere has recently exerted a powerful influence in literary studies. This produces the concomitant desire to stretch the concept over a broader range than Habermas himself proposed, which was roughly the period beginning with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. In the case of Renaissance studies, this has produced a salutary emphasis on the role of Protestantism and print culture in anticipating the bourgeois public sphere. (1) The English Renaissance indeed possesses a public sphere: pulpit, print, theater. Whether these proliferating media of public discussion constitute a bourgeois public sphere is another ...