Samuel Johnson and the art of sinking, 1709-1791 / Freya Johnston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnston, Freya.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784--Criticism and interpretation.

Johnson, Samuel.

England--Intellectual life--18th century.

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (284 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The traditional view of Samuel Johnson as hostile to particulars, trifles, and aesthetic mediocrity only half-explains his authorial character. Samuel Johnson and the Art of Sinking 1709-1791 argues that, in a period dominated by social and literary hierarchies, Johnson's works reveal a defining interest in 'little', 'mean', or 'low' topics and people.Freya Johnston moves away from a critical emphasis on what literature of this period excludes, to consider its modes of including recalcitrant material. Of necessity finite, any piece of writing is informed by the subject matter it omits or to wh

Contents:

Contents; Note on Texts and Short Titles; Introduction; 1. Inclusion and Exclusion; 1. 'Ladies, I am tame; you may stroke me'; 2. Types and Individuals; 3. Catalogues; 4. The General and the Particular; 2. 'Voluntary Degradation': Johnson's Prefaces and Dedications; 1. Humility; 2. Enlarging Trifles; 3. Perpetuating Ephemera; 4. Patronage; 3. Diminishing Returns: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland; 1. The Category of the Diminutive; 2. Elegance; 3. The Rhetoric of Diminution: Litotes; 4. A Scottish Savage; 4. Stooping to Conquer: Johnsonian Biography; 1. The Lives of the Poets

2. Paltry Circumstances3. Corrective Readings: Pope and Blackmore, Milton and Watts; 4. Dr Johnson and Dr Levet: The Likeness of Men; Bibliography: Works Cited; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-255) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-280-75356-0

9786610753567

0-19-153077-8

1-4294-8993-6

OCLC:

735626131