Book contents
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2026
Summary
The Conclusion reflects back on the many weeping eyes considered in the course of the book, as well as the insights they provide concerning the tear’s complicated relationship with perception and knowledge, with affect and signification, with gender and power, and with science and sentimentality. It also examines an advertisement for spectacles that illustrates some of the ocular challenges the Victorian periodical press posed to reading eyes. This analysis brings the study back around to affective hermeneutics and to a discussion of the tear as critical lens, a figuration that encapsulates both the theme and method of the project.
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- Weeping EyesSeeing and Feeling in the Sentimental Tradition, pp. 160 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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