| Swift and History: Politics and the English Past Contributor(s): Marshall, Ashley (Author) |
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ISBN: 110710176X ISBN-13: 9781107101760 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Dewey: 907.202 |
| LCCN: 2015001830 |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.9" W x 9" (1.20 lbs) 294 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Swift has been said to have little interest in history; his attempts to write it have been disparaged and his desire to become Historiographer Royal ridiculed. Ashley Marshall argues that history mattered enormously to Swift. He read a vast amount of history and uses historical examples copiously in his own works. This study traces Swift's classical and modern historiographical inheritance; analyses his unsuccessful attempt to write a history of England; and offers radical re-reading of his History of the Four Last Years of the Queen. A systematic analysis of Swift's view of 'authority' is highly revealing. His attitudes toward power and authority, sovereigns' and subjects' rights, parliamentary representation, and succession are reflected in his lifelong engagement with and pervasive use of the past. Studying Swift and history enables a deeper understanding of his authoritarian and historiographically Tory outlook - and how it changed when Swift's party fell from power in 1714. |
Contributor Bio(s): Marshall, Ashley: - Ashley Marshall is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is the author of The Practice of Satire in England, 1658 1770 (2013). |