From pages 17-18 of my book:
Revolutionary philosophy of the sixteenth through
nineteenth centuries provides momentum for the transformation of consciousness,
circuitous pathways of innovation and circularity within societal parameters,
creating awareness of cultural change, often through literary
articulation.
During the long eighteenth
century, Sydney Owenson constructs her national tales by configuring
lexical combinations of Irish, English and European colloquialisms, drawing
upon the historical and philosophical perceptions of René Descartes, John
Locke, and Immanuel Kant to transform her romantic tales into narratives
of political inquiry.
Her voice maintains a necessary
fortitude in terms of her feminine perspective, placing Irish ideology into the
center of English culture at the onset of the Ascendancy, while she illustrates
foresight in challenging the political stance of the United Kingdom in the
early decades of the nineteenth century.
Ha' Penny Bridge, Dublin, Ireland
