Plots and Counterplots: Sexual Politics and the Body Politic in English Literature, 1660–1730 (Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought, Series Number 18) - Hardcover

Braverman, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521356202 ISBN 13: 9780521356206

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Richard Braverman's study of literary and political plots looks at the ways in which the rhetoric of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century dynastic politics finds its formal expression in narrative evocations of the family romance. Its point of departure is the political conflict that led to the rupture between crown and parliament in the earlier seventeenth century, and the ensuing quest for a discourse that might bridge the division. Beginning with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and ending with the rise of oligarchy in the 1720s, it traverses a wide literary territory, from royalist lyrics celebrating the Restoration, to Butler, Marvell, Etherege, Dryden, Congreve, Defoe and Thomson, amongst others. Covering an equally broad range of genres, including satire, tragedy, comedy, romance, georgic and the novel, Braverman's argument is focused by the notion of sexual politics, offering an idiom in which to address the larger framework of dynastic politics.

About this title

Book Description

This study relates literary and political plots in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the notion of sexual politics. From the restoration in 1660 to the rise of oligarchy in the 1720s, it traverses a wide range of authors and literary genres, including satire, tragedy, comedy, romance, georgic and the novel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0521356202
• ISBN 13: 9780521356206
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 351