the rise of British literature from Dryden to Ossian /
Howard D. Weinbrot.
New York :
Cambridge University Press,
1993.
1 online resource (xvii, 625 pages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
pt. 1. Contexts : intellectual, psychological, and national -- pt. 2. Texts within contexts, essaying England : our genius, our clime -- pt. 3. Growing one's own : the British ode from Cowley to Gray -- pt. 4. Expanding the borders : Jews and Jesus : this Israel, this England -- pt. 5. Celts, Germans, and Scots : towards a United Kingdom.
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This, Howard D.Weinbrot's magnum opus, draws on a large range of material to chronicle the developing confidence in British national literature from the 1670s to the 1770s. Using varied biblical, classical, English, economic, French, historical, literary, philosophical, political and Scottish sources, Professor Weinbrot shows that one of the central trends of eighteenth-century Britain was the movement away from classical towards native values and models. He demonstrates for example that Dryden's Essay of Dramatick Poesy reflects nationalist aesthetics, that Pope's Rape of the Lock affirms domestic peace while rejecting Homeric violence, and that Windsor Forest sings un-Roman peaceful expansion through trade. This learned and lucidly written book offers revisionist but historically grounded interpretations of these and many other important works. It also helps to characterize the complex and varied culture in eighteenth-century Britain.
Britannia's issue.
Macpherson, James,1736-1796., Ossian.
Ossian (Macpherson, James)
Aesthetics, British.
English literature-- 18th century-- History and criticism.
English literature-- Early modern, 1500-1700-- History and criticism.
National characteristics, British, in literature.
Nationalism-- Great Britain-- History-- 17th century.
Nationalism-- Great Britain-- History-- 18th century.