Henry and Sarah Fielding: The 2010s in retrospect

Abstract

This article provides an overview of studies of Henry and Sarah Fielding since the 2010s, with occasional discussion of earlier sources. These years have given pronounced attention to the Fieldings' responses to material and intellectual contexts: economic, political, and religious crises; empiricist epistemology and science; Lockean theories of education; discourses on gender and sexuality; and the dynamics of the public sphere. Work on aesthetics has reassessed the Fieldings' handling of satire and their attitudes towards both national and international genres. I identify zones of growing consensus as well as persistent disagreement, and I close by noting two unresolved attribution problems and calling for more work on Sarah's influence on Henry.