Radicalism in British Literary Culture, 1650-1830: From Revolution to Revolution

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Timothy Morton, Nigel Smith
Cambridge University Press, 2002 M01 3 - 284 pages
Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) In this volume of interdisciplinary essays, leading scholars examine the radical tradition in British literary culture from the English Revolution to the French Revolution. They chart continuities between the two periods and examine the recuperation of ideas and texts from the earlier period in the 1790s and beyond. Contributors utilize a variety of approaches and concepts: from gender studies, the cultural history of food and diet and the history of political discourse, to explorations of the theatre, philosophy and metaphysics. This volume argues that the radical agendas of the mid-seventeenth century, intended to change society fundamentally, did not disappear throughout the long eighteenth-century only to be resuscitated at its close. Rather, through close textual analysis, these essays indicate a more continuous transmission. Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: English literature 18th century History and criticism, Radicalism in literature, English literature Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism, English literature 19th century History and criticism, Revolutionary literature, English History and criticism, Politics and literature Great Britain History, Radicalism Great Britain History.
 

Contents

Introduction I
11
May the last king be strangled in the bowels
29
Radicalism and replication
45
The plantation of wrath
64
theodicy and regeneration
86
the significance of gender and bodies
101
John Thelwall and the Revolution of 1 649
119
Womens private reading and political action 16491838
133
poetry
151
William Cobbett John Clare and the agrarian politics
167
998
216
Index
267
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About the author (2002)

Timothy Morton is Professor of English at Rice University, Houston.

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