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Eighteenth Century English Literature

ISBN: 978-0-745-62515-7

November 2011

Polity

200 pages

Description
This engaging book introduces new readers of eighteenth-century texts to some of the major works, authors, and debates of a key period of literary history. Rather than simply providing a chronological survey of the era, this book analyzes the impact of significant cultural developments on literary themes and forms - including urbanization, colonial, and mercantile expansion, the emergence of the "public sphere," and changes in sex and gender roles.

In eighteenth-century Britain, many of the things we take for granted about modern life were shockingly new: women appeared for the first time on stage; the novel began to dominate the literary marketplace; people entertained the possibility that all human beings were created equal, and tentatively proposed that reason could triumph over superstition; ministers became more powerful than kings, and the consumer emerged as a political force. Eighteenth-Century English Literature: 1660-1789 explores these issues in relation to well-known works by such authors as Defoe, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Gray, and Sterne, while also bringing attention to less familiar figures, such as Charlotte Smith, Mary Leapor, and Olaudah Equiano. It offers both an ideal introduction for students and a fresh approach for those with research interests in the period.

About the Author
Charlotte Sussman is Associate Professor of English at Duke University
Features
  • Introduction to the literature of the eighteenth century and its cultural, social and political contexts.
  • Ties literary developments to the shaping of modernity during the period, including the growth of cities, global trade and travel, and rights for women, workers and slaves.
  • Explores the emergence of new literary genres such as the novel.
  • Covers a range of authors and genres, both canonical and lesser-known.