Biography

Sarah Eron specializes in the literature, culture, and philosophy of the long eighteenth century (1660-1820). Her teaching and scholarship maintain a formalist and philosophical approach to literature, while entertaining cross-disciplinary questions that motivate the broader field of cognitive studies. Her recent book, Mind over Matter: Memory Fiction from Daniel Defoe to Jane Austen (University of Virginia Press, 2021) brings theories about “memory error” from today’s scientific culture into conversation with literary historical perspectives so as to argue for a new vision of memory and mediation in the early English novel.

Professor Eron received her PhD at Cornell University where she studied eighteenth-century literature, with a particular focus on Enlightenment and Romantic philosophies of the mind and aesthetics. Her early work on form and aesthetics at Cornell led her to think about authorship and the modern belief that language and ideas come from ourselves, our mentors, and the conversations we have with other people. Her first book, Inspiration in the Age of Enlightenment, traces this historical assumption to a secular turn in early eighteenth century practices of readership and composition.