We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2019
ENCOUNTERING the concept of sociability was for me a kind of magical portal into history. I had been working on ‘conversation in the eighteenth century’, originally to understand why French conversation was such an important feature of eighteenth-century gentlemen and ladies’ education. When reading the Spectator and L. E. Klein's Ph.D. thesis ‘The Rise of “Politeness” in England, 1660–1715’, I realised that conversation was not just talk but was the ultimate expression of a set of practices performed within a specific and crucial context, sociability. In its most essential meaning, it refers to the ability of people who are not necessarily related by blood or alliance to relate to each other in society. While the term sociability is mostly used by historians, it is now virtually taken for granted, due to the pervasiveness of social media. Thinking about the similarities and differences between sociability in the eighteenth and the twenty-first centuries, I was struck by what these can tell us about human interaction.
What struck me most about sociability, when I first began to study it, was its aim to be an ‘ideological space’ where social equality could be practised despite other inequalities. Sociability in the eighteenth century had to be tempered by politeness and the requirement to observe rules of bienseance – tact, civility and putting the needs of the group before one's own. In our own time, modern social media too provide a virtually infinite space for people to communicate, regardless of race, class or religion, as long as the technology is available. In theory, social media allow sharing and the conquering of difference and selfishness. In practice, as they develop, issues about observing propriety in the face of ‘trolling’ behaviour have come to the fore. These contradictions and how the people involved negotiate them are central to all forms of sociability in any age, and they are a central focus of this book.
This collection of essays is not an attempt to bring together a variety of harmonious views on sociability.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
