In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Calvinism, Enthusiasm, and Suicide:The Regulation of Subjectivity in the Romantic Period
• Michelle Faubert (bio)

Since the Renaissance period, Calvinism has been linked to suicide in the popular imaginary, even though it has always been unequivocal in condemning the act. This commonly held belief pronounces Calvinism as enthusiastic in Romantic-era terminology, or linked with religious madness, since suicide was almost always deemed to be caused by insanity by the turn of the nineteenth century (Marsh 93). Yet, recent historical research demonstrates the inaccuracy of the popular notion that Calvinists kill themselves more frequently than do members of the rest of the population. Thus, we must inquire into why this false belief has persisted for so long. It may not reflect a factual truth, but it endures because it clearly serves an ideological purpose. But what does this link signify? What cultural ideal does it serve, create, perpetuate? The literary world of the long nineteenth century provides important insight into the ideological function performed by the belief in suicidal Calvinism, which it helped to popularize. In what follows, I outline the historical contours of this myth, detail recent historians' study of it, and contribute to this investigation by examining two famous instances of Calvinistic suicide in the literary world: James Hogg's 1824 Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and critical commentary upon William Cowper's biography. Through a close reading of another literary artifact from the period, Samuel Johnson's influential definition of "enthusiasm," I demonstrate that the common belief in Calvinistic suicide reflects a broad cultural interest in regulating subjectivity.

I. The Regulation of Private Experience: Johnson's Enthusiasm and Rules for Reading

At the same time that Enlightenment science advanced its goal of total observation into the mental realm through the new field of psychology,¹ Calvinism, a highly individualistic faith, became identified with insanity. I suggest that Calvinism's emphasis on private communication with God, [End Page 79] which could not be regulated by external sources or experts, challenged the broad social movement towards total transparency and shared experience that was established principally by Enlightenment science and deployed throughout the religious, literary, and psychological realms. By linking Calvinism with insanity, Romantic-era culture divested it of legitimacy and labelled its form of subjectivity insignificant.

The fear of unregulated, private experience is essential to Johnson's definition of enthusiasm, or religious insanity, which suggests that the concept functioned in part as an early means of enforcing ideological strictures regarding individuals' beliefs. Johnson's definition appears in his hugely influential text, A Dictionary of the English Language, the first "major English dictionary," according to Walter Jackson Bate (241). Focusing on the potential for the misinterpretation of God's word, the definition emphasizes the isolated nature of enthusiastic communication with the divine. Moreover, by seeking to distinguish real, acceptable forms of faith from false, insane approaches to God, Johnson's definition reveals its regulatory function. Citing John Locke as his source, Johnson defines enthusiasm as "A vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication. Enthusiasm is founded neither on reason nor divine revelation, but rises from the conceits of a warmed or overweening brain" ("enthusiasm"). Johnsonian enthusiasm is the individual's private conviction that he or she fully understands God's word. Thus, the word enthusiasm represents a crisis of reading: it denotes unchecked interpretative hubris. Johnson also asserts that enthusiasm is "vain" and rises from the "conceits" of madness, both words suggesting excessive personal pride and mistakenness as integrally linked concepts. Understood in accordance with the "private" nature of enthusiasm, such "vain" "conceits" appear to be wrong precisely because of their interior, isolated nature. Although Johnson's definition attempts to establish popular notions of properly constituted faith mostly through negative means—by saying what faith is not ("vain," "private," "[un]reasonable")—the positive features of properly constituted faith are clear. This definition of enthusiasm implies that properly constituted belief is not private and that it is rightly subject to the judgment of others. Like the uncanny, what lies hidden—the subjective motions of faith—must come to light, must be externalized and put...

中文翻译：

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加尔文主义，热情和自杀：浪漫时期的主观性调节

代替摘要，这里是内容的简要摘录：

• 加尔文主义，热情和自杀：浪漫时期的主观性调节
• 米歇尔·福伯特（生物）

自文艺复兴时期以来，加尔文主义在通俗的想象中一直与自杀联系在一起，尽管它在谴责这一行为方面始终是毫不含糊的。这种普遍持有的信念表明加尔文主义对浪漫主义时代的术语充满热情，或者与宗教疯狂联系在一起，因为到19世纪初，自杀几乎总是被认为是由精神错乱引起的（Marsh 93）。然而，最近的历史研究表明，加尔文主义者比其他人口更容易自杀的流行观念是不正确的。因此，我们必须调查为什么这种错误的信念持续了这么长时间。它可能不能反映事实真相，但之所以能够持久，是因为它显然具有意识形态目的。但是，此链接表示什么？它所服务，创造的文化理想是什么，永存？十九世纪很长的文学世界为自杀加尔文主义的信仰所发挥的意识形态功能提供了重要的见解，并有助于其普及。接下来，我概述了这个神话的历史轮廓，详细介绍了最近的历史学家对其的研究，并通过考察文学界两个著名的加尔文主义自杀事件为詹姆斯·霍格（James Hogg）1824年的自杀作贡献。正当罪人的私人回忆录和自白以及对William Cowper传记的批评评论。通过仔细阅读该时期的另一文学作品，塞缪尔·约翰逊（Samuel Johnson）对“热情”的有影响力的定义，我证明了对加尔文主义自杀的普遍信仰反映了调节主观性的广泛文化兴趣。

一牛逼他[R的egulation P rivate è xperience：J- ohnson的Ë nthusiasm和[R ULES为[R eading

同时，启蒙科学通过心理学的新领域将其全面观察的目标推进到精神领域，¹加尔文主义，一种高度个人主义的信仰，被认为是精神错乱。我建议加尔文教派强调与上帝的私人交流，[末页79]不能由外部资源或专家来管理，它挑战了由完全启蒙科学建立并在整个宗教中广泛传播的朝着全面透明和共享经验的广泛社会运动。 ，文学和心理领域。通过将加尔文主义与精神错乱联系起来，浪漫主义时代的文化剥夺了其合法性，并称其主观形式微不足道。

约翰逊对热情或宗教精神错乱的定义至关重要，这是对不受约束的私人经历的恐惧，这表明该概念在某种程度上是作为对个人信仰实施意识形态约束的早期手段。约翰逊的定义出现在他极具影响力的著作《英语词典》中，根据沃尔特·杰克逊·贝特（241）的说法，第一本“主要的英语词典”。该定义着重于可能误解上帝圣言的潜能，强调了与上帝热心交流的孤立性质。此外，约翰逊的定义通过设法将真实的，可接受的信仰形式与对神的错误，疯狂的方法区分开来，从而揭示了其调节功能。援引约翰·洛克为他的来源，约翰逊定义的热情为“私人启示的信仰徒劳的;神圣的赞成票或通信的徒劳信心冷热不均约翰逊式的热情是个人对自己完全理解上帝的道理的私人信念，因此，热情一词代表一种“私人”的信念。阅读危机：约翰·约翰逊还断言，热情是“徒劳的”，并且源于疯狂的“自负”，这两个词都暗示着过分的个人自豪感和错误是不可或缺的联系概念。热情的本质，这种“徒然”的“自负”恰恰是错误的，因为它们具有内在的，孤立的本质。s的定义主要是通过消极的手段（通过说什么是信仰）来建立适当构成的信仰的流行概念。不是（“徒然”，“私人”，“不合理”）—正确构成的信仰的积极特征是显而易见的。热情的这种定义意味着适当构成的信念不是私人的，它理所当然地要服从他人的判断。像不可思议的事物一样，隐藏的东西-信仰的主观动机-必须暴露出来，必须外在化并加以……