Medalie, David2014-09-052014-09-052013David Medalie (2013) ‘Myself Creating What I Saw’: Sympathy and Solipsism in Jane Austen's Emma, English Studies in Africa, 56:2, 1-13, DOI:10.1080/00138398.2015.8565530013-8398 (print)1943-8117 (online)10.1080/00138398.2015.856553http://hdl.handle.net/2263/41928This paper situates Jane Austen’s Emma (1816) in relation to Enlightenment ideas about selfhood. It argues that the moral philosophy of two central figures from the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume and Adam Smith, may be used to shed light on Austen’s dramatisation of the self’s interaction with others, especially in Emma. Of particular importance is the emphasis on ‘sympathy’ in the work of Hume and Smith. The genuinely ‘sympathetic’ self gains self-knowledge and self-insight through responsiveness to the perspectives and predicaments of others. This is in stark contrast to solipsistic conduct, which locks the individual in a form of moral and epistemological blindness.en© University of the Witwatersrand and Taylor and Francis. This is an electronic version of an article published in English Studies in Africa, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 1-13, 2013, doi : 10.1080/00138398.2015.856553. English Studies in Africa is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reia20.EnlightenmentSelfhoodSympathySolipsismJane Austen's Emma (1816)David HumeAdam SmithPostprint Article