Combining the analysis of Victorian literature and culture with a strong theoretical argument, the "powers of distance" examines the gradual possibility of those forms of implanted separation associated with enlightenment and modern thought. Amanda Anderson explores a range of practices in British culture in the 19th century, including objectivity methods in social sciences, total science practices in artistic realism, and complex forms of belonging in Victorian cosmopolitanism. Anderson explains that many writers - including George Elliott, John Stewart Mill, Charlotte Bronte, Matthew Arnold, and Oscar Wilde - are carefully addressing the difficult ethical issues that prepare separatism.

In so doing, it offers a presentation of Victorian culture and a strong defense of secession as a practice and continuous aspiration. The "powers of the dimension" illuminate its historical objective of study and provides a strong example of its theoretical argument.

The ideal of critical separation lies in the ironic patterns of modernity and postmodernism, as well as the tradition of enlightenment and critical theory. Her broad understanding of separation and cultivated distance, together with her central historical analysis, will attract theorists and critics through the humanities, especially those who work in literary, cultural, feminist and postcolonial studies.

Originally in terms of scope and dissertation, this book is a major contribution to contemporary literary history and theory.

I want that book.