Dryden and enthusiasm : literature, religion, and politics in Restoration England / John West.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

West, John, 1983- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dryden, John, 1631-1700--Criticism and interpretation.

Dryden, John.

Dryden, John, 1631-1700.

Enthusiasm in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

200 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Dryden & enthusiasm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

This book explores the paradoxical place of enthusiasm in Dryden's writing and the role he conceived for it in art and society after the violent upheavals of the mid seventeenth century. Works from across his oeuvre are explored, from his early essays and heroic plays to his translations, via new readings of his famous political and religious poems. These are read alongside other major writers of the period, like Milton, and less well-known authors, such as John Dennis. The book suggests new ways of conceptualising the relationship between literary practice and ideological allegiance in Restoration England. It reveals Dryden to be a writer who was consistently interested in the limits of what literature could express, what feelings it could provoke, and what it could make people believe at a time when such questions were of uncertain political importance.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-195) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Electronic version: West, John. Dryden and enthusiasm.

ISBN:

9780198816409

0198816405

OCLC:

991676179