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An Expanding Universe: The Project of Eighteenth-Century Studies: Essays Commemorating the Career of Jim Springer Borck
Like the eighteenth century itself, the world of Jim Borck was always in the process of enlargement, whether through the swelling of a university office into a global bibliographical clearing house or whether in the upgrading of an interest in Augustan landscapes into an enthusiasm for the production of television documentaries on natural-historical topics. An Expanding Universe commemorates Jim Borck’s commitment to the perennial enlargement of eighteenth-century studies and celebrates his fervor for topics that would reach beyond the familiar, indeed would reach into parts unknown and spaces unexplored.
Each of the collection’s four sections explores different varieties of expansion and expansiveness in both eighteenth-century studies and general cultural history. The first probes the outer limits of communication within and without the period. The second scrutinizes the dialogue between classification and expansion. The third section reflects on the individual components in these expansive taxonomies, speculating on the relation between larger-than-life personalities and the comprehensive but sometimes reductive explanatory systems that the period prized. The final section looks at those gregarious enthusiasts of the period who, as the Earl of Shaftesbury suggested, sought ever wider arrays of friends and correspondents in the hope of creating a vivacious universe comprised of knowledge and witty conversation—witty conversation in which the surprisingly articulate universe might join. This volume honors Jim Springer Borck by showing how his friends, colleagues, students, and disciples now probe worlds without end while replacing boundaries with opportunities, shibboleths with interrogatives, and stabilities with expansions.
Each of the collection’s four sections explores different varieties of expansion and expansiveness in both eighteenth-century studies and general cultural history. The first probes the outer limits of communication within and without the period. The second scrutinizes the dialogue between classification and expansion. The third section reflects on the individual components in these expansive taxonomies, speculating on the relation between larger-than-life personalities and the comprehensive but sometimes reductive explanatory systems that the period prized. The final section looks at those gregarious enthusiasts of the period who, as the Earl of Shaftesbury suggested, sought ever wider arrays of friends and correspondents in the hope of creating a vivacious universe comprised of knowledge and witty conversation—witty conversation in which the surprisingly articulate universe might join. This volume honors Jim Springer Borck by showing how his friends, colleagues, students, and disciples now probe worlds without end while replacing boundaries with opportunities, shibboleths with interrogatives, and stabilities with expansions.
410 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2013
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