The Novel and the Passport
Scott Juengel, Vanderbilt University
Prompted by Friedrich Schlegel’s remark that a comprehensive passport system would make it “impossible to write a good novel,” this paper examines the consolidation of both centralized administration and the novel genre in the late 18th
century. Rarely do we think so starkly about the aesthetics of the romantic security state, or consider how literary form shares a regard for borders with a philosophy of policing. How are novels and regimes of documentation vying for common theoretical ground? To answer such questions, I suggest how the “problematic individual” of novel theory anticipates the “undocumented subject” of modern rights discourse.
Respondent: Melissa Ganz, Marquette University
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Register and Request PaperAbout the Eighteen-Century Seminar
The Eighteenth-Century Seminar is designed to foster research and inquiry across the scholarly disciplines in eighteenth-century studies. It aims to provide a methodologically diverse forum for work that engages ongoing discussions and debates along this historical and critical terrain. Each year the seminar sponsors one public lecture followed by questions and discussion, and two works-in-progress sessions featuring pre-circulated papers.
The seminar is organized by Timothy Campbell (University of Chicago), Lisa A. Freeman (University of Illinois at Chicago), Jason Farr (Marquette University), and Alicia Caticha (Northwestern University).