The Function of Sublime and Reason in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Grand Tour Account Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796)
Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures, vol.18, no.2, pp.795-812, 2026 (Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 18 Issue: 2
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.47012/jjmll.18.2.15
- Journal Name: Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures
- Journal Indexes: Scopus
- Page Numbers: pp.795-812
- Akdeniz University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
In 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft published Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, written during her journey to a destination different from the eighteenth-century Grand Tour of Europe. Authorized to restore a ship carrying lost silver freight in Sweden, Wollstonecraft embarks on a business journey, tracing societal development, the economic and political conditions of states through philosophical contemplations, sentimental narrative, and sublime experience. In this paper, it is argued that for Wollstonecraft, who travelled in the Romantic period, the sublime represents mental mobility. Encounters with sublime nature display the individual’s adequacy in thinking and analysing the external environment, illustrating the sublime as instrument of reason.