Heroes & states : on the ideology of Restoration tragedy / J. Douglas Canfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Canfield, J. Douglas (John Douglas), 1941-2003.

Contributor:

Canfield, J. Douglas (John Douglas), 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Restoration, 1660-1700--History and criticism.

English drama.

English drama (Tragedy)--History and criticism.

English drama (Tragedy).

Politics and literature--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Politics and literature.

Great Britain.

History.

Political plays, English--History and criticism.

Political plays, English.

Nationalism in literature.

State, The, in literature.

Heroes in literature.

Physical Description:

xvii, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Heroes and states

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2000]

Summary:

This work completes Douglas Canfield's two-volume cultural history of Restoration drama. It analyzes by subgenre the ways in which Restoration playwrights attempted to reinscribe late-feudal aristocratic ideology after the English Civil War.

Heroes and States demonstrates, for example, how heroic romance and romantic tragedy reaffirm the older ideology after it was tested in the fires of conflict. Tragical satire, the most subversive of these subgenres, exposes not only the failure of the ruling class to live up to its own codes but, in some cases, the absurdity of the codes themselves.

Canfield concludes the body of the work by examining tragicomedy and its blend of idealistic and pragmatic grounds for the reaffirmation of aristocratic ideology, thereby bringing his study full-circle, back to the world of Restoration comedy.

Notes:

Continues: Tricksters & estates.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [216]-227) and indexes.

Related Work:

Canfield, J. Douglas (John Douglas), 1941- Tricksters & estates.

ISBN:

0813121256

OCLC:

40683651