The Origins of the English Novel, 1600–1740

The Origins of the English Novel, 1600–1740 PDF

Author: Michael McKeon

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published: 2003-05-13

Total Pages: 822

ISBN-13: 0801877997

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“This may well be the most important study of the development of prose fiction in England since Ian Watt’s classic Rise of the Novel, on which it builds.” —Library Journal The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, combines historical analysis and readings of extraordinarily diverse texts to reconceive the foundations of the dominant genre of the modern era. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of its initial publication, The Origins of the English Novel stands as essential reading. The anniversary edition features a new introduction in which the author reflects on the considerable response and commentary the book has attracted since its publication by describing dialectical method and by applying it to early modern notions of gender. Challenging prevailing theories that tie the origins of the novel to the ascendancy of “realism” and the “middle class,” McKeon argues that this new genre arose in response to the profound instability of literary and social categories. Between 1600 and 1740, momentous changes took place in European attitudes toward truth in narrative and toward virtue in the individual and the social order. The novel emerged, McKeon contends, as a cultural instrument designed to engage the epistemological and social crises of the age. “This book is a formidable attempt to articulate issues of almost imponderable centrality for modern life and literature. McKeon proposes with quite breathtaking ambition and considerable intellectual flourish to redefine the novel’s key role in those immense cultural transformations that produce the modern world.” —Studies in the Novel “A magisterial work of history and analysis.” —Arts and Letters “A powerful and solid work that will dominate discussion of its subject for a long time to come.” —The New York Review of Books

English Drama

English Drama PDF

Author: Richard W. Bevis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-06

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1317870913

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What were the causes of Restoration drama's licentiousness? How did the elegantly-turned comedy of Congreve become the pointed satire of Fielding? And how did Sheridan and Goldsmith reshape the materials they inherited? In the first account of the entire period for more than a decade, Richard Bevis argues that none of these questions can be answered without an understanding of Augustan and Georgian history. The years between 1660 and 1789 saw considerable political and social upheaval, which is reflected in the eclectic array of dramatic forms that is Georgian theatre's essential characteristic.

The Forms of Historical Fiction

The Forms of Historical Fiction PDF

Author: Harry E. Shaw

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 1501723286

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Harry Shaw’s aim is to promote a fuller understanding of nineteenth-century historical fiction by revealing its formal possibilities and limitations. His wide-ranging book establishes a typology of the ways in which history was used in prose fiction during the nineteenth century, examining major works by Sir Walter Scott—the first modern historical novelist—and by Balzac, Hugo, Anatole France, Eliot, Thackeray, Dickens, and Tolstoy.

Remapping the Mediterranean World in Early Modern English Writings

Remapping the Mediterranean World in Early Modern English Writings PDF

Author: G. Stanivukovic

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2007-01-08

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0230601847

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The essays in this volume explore the Mediterranean both as a physical and cultural space, and as a conceptual notion that challenges the boundaries between East and West. It emphasizes the Ottoman Mediterranean, by exploring a variety of literary and non-literary texts produced between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth centuries.

Ends of Empire

Ends of Empire PDF

Author: Laura Brown

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780801480959

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This book explores the representation of women in english literature from the Restoration to the fall of Walpole.

Theatre and Culture in Early Modern England, 1650-1737

Theatre and Culture in Early Modern England, 1650-1737 PDF

Author: Catie Gill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1351880128

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Framed by the publication of Leviathan and the 1713 Licensing Act, this collection provides analysis of both canonical and non-canonical texts within the scope of an eighty-year period of theatre history, allowing for definition and assessment that uncouples Restoration drama from eighteenth-century drama. Individual essays demonstrate the significant contrasts between the theatre of different decades and the context of performance, paying special attention to the literary innovation and socio-political changes that contributed to the evolution of drama. Exploring the developments in both tragedy and comedy, and in literary production, specific topics include the playwright's relationship to the monarch, women writers' connection to the audience, the changing market for plays, and the rise of the bourgeoisie. This collection also examines aspects of gender and class through the exploration of women's impact on performance and production, masculinity and libertinism, master/servant relationships, and dramatic representations of the coffee house. Accompanied by a list of Spanish-English plays and a chronology of monarch's reigns and significant changes in theatre history, From Leviathan to Licensing Act is a valuable tool for scholars of Restoration and eighteenth-century performance, providing groundwork for future research and investigation.

Partisan Politics, Narrative Realism, and the Rise of the British Novel

Partisan Politics, Narrative Realism, and the Rise of the British Novel PDF

Author: R. Carnell

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2006-08-19

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1403983542

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This book considers why narrative realism in literature is seen as a 'full account' of 'real life' and the individual self. Unconventionally, Carnell shows that the formal conventions of narrative realism emerged in the seventeenth century in response to an explosion of partisan writings that put into play competing versions of political selfhood.

Broken Boundaries

Broken Boundaries PDF

Author: Katherine M. Quinsey

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-03-17

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0813159997

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This volume of twelve original essays is the first comprehensive study of feminist issues in Restoration drama. The late seventeenth century marks a pivotal era in the history of feminism, when Renaissance assumptions about gender and patriarchy were being directly challenged. For the first time, women appeared onstage as actresses, made their presence felt as spectators and patrons, and wrote a number of the plays produced in theaters. In an unusually direct and probing way, drama of the Restoration period raised radical questions about the place of women in the family and in society, and about the essential nature of men and women. The essays examine feminist issues from a variety of historical and theoretical approaches across a spectrum of plays—comedies, tragedies, tragicomedies, and heroic drama. By addressing the acute questions of gender raised in the drama, Broken Boundaries presents a vivid portrait of the uncertainties and changing perceptions in all areas of intellectual, political, and social life during the last decades of the seventeenth century.