From Savage to Citizen

"From Savage to Citizen examines the invention of the peasant in the literature, theater, and painting of the French Enlightenment. It contends that, much like the noble savage, the peasant is one of the major constructions of the Enlightenment, and that its articulation and development are consonant with changes in the social order and the development of bourgeois ideologies over the course of the century. Placing the works of canonical and popular authors and artists within the context of contemporary trends in philosophical thought, aesthetic theory, and political economy, it illuminates the cultural forces that worked to elevate the peasant to such a prominent place in French national consciousness in the eighteenth century and beyond." "Using methodologies derived from cultural studies, new historicism, and the history of ideas, Amy S. Wyngaard argues that changing ideas of individual, class, and national identity in the eighteenth century were elaborated around portrayals of the peasant."--BOOK JACKET.