The Other Night: Dreaming, Writing, and Restlessness in Twentieth-Century Literature
This book revises the concept of the public sphere by examining opinion as a foundational concept of modernity. Indispensable to ideas like Gpublic opinionG and Gfreedom of opinion,G opinionGthough often held in dubious reputeGhere assumes a central position in modern philosophy, literature, sociology, and political theory. Kirk Wetters focuses on interpretive shifts begun in the Enlightenment and cemented by the French Revolution to restore the concept of GopinionG to a central role in our understanding of the political public sphere. Addressing an intriguing range of thinkers, some little known to an American readership, Wetters argues that the transformations wrought by opinion are resisted by literary language, which opposes the rigid formalism that compels individuals to identify with their opinions. Rather than forcing thought to bind itself to stable opinions, modern literary forms seek to suspend this moment of closure, so that held opinions do not bring all deliberative processes to a standstill.
