Re-imagining the Public Sphere in the Long Nineteenth Century

<p>The crisis afflicting political discourse in many western democracies</p> <p>today is often explained in terms of a fragmentation of the</p> <p>public sphere. This volume critically probes the legacy of Jürgen</p> <p>Habermas’s ground-breaking study The Structural Transformation</p> <p>of the Public Sphere and considers how the more recent work of</p> <p>the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor can help us conceptualise</p> <p>the formation of the public sphere as part of a new social</p> <p>imaginary in the long nineteenth century. Whereas scholars have</p> <p>traditionally approached the topic in terms of the history of institutions</p> <p>and technology, this volume considers the vital role played by</p> <p>art and literature in shaping our understanding of the public sphere</p> <p>across a range of national and transnational settings. How did the</p> <p>way the public sphere is imagined change during the long nineteenth</p> <p>century? And how can these changes be mapped against</p> <p>a transition from a cosmopolitan concept of the public sphere to</p> <p>one conditioned by nationalistic thinking?</p>