The language of fruit : literature and horticulture in the long eighteenth century / Liz Bellamy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bellamy, Liz, author.

Series:

Penn studies in landscape architecture.

Penn studies in landscape architecture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--18th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Horticultural literature--England--History--18th century.

Horticultural literature.

Fruit-culture--England--History--18th century.

Fruit-culture.

Fruit--Symbolic aspects.

Fruit.

Fruit in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (207 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019]

Summary:

'[A] fascinating work of ecocriticism, illustrating how fruit has been meaningful in the English imaginary over time. In richly detailed prose Bellamy provides insights both diachronic and synchronic, tying together the ways that fruit husbandry in general, and particular fruits such as pears, oranges, pineapples, and melons—as represented in works of literature—convey information about the contemporary society of the authors.'—ChoiceIn The Language of Fruit, Liz Bellamy explores how poets, playwrights, and novelists from the Restoration to the Romantic era represented fruit and fruit trees in a period that saw significant changes in cultivation techniques, the expansion of the range of available fruit varieties, and the transformation of the mechanisms for their exchange and distribution. Although her principal concern is with the representation of fruit within literary texts and genres, she nevertheless grounds her analysis in the consideration of what actually happened in the gardens and orchards of the past.As Bellamy progresses through sections devoted to specific literary genres, three central'characters'come to the fore: the apple, long a symbol of natural abundance, simplicity, and English integrity; the orange, associated with trade and exchange until its'naturalization'as a British resident; and the pineapple, often figured as a cossetted and exotic child of indulgence epitomizing extravagant luxury. She demonstrates how the portrayal of fruits within literary texts was complicated by symbolic associations derived from biblical and classical traditions, often identifying fruit with female temptation and sexual desire. Looking at seventeenth-century poetry, Restoration drama, eighteenth-century georgic, and the Romantic novel, as well as practical writings on fruit production and husbandry, Bellamy shows the ways in which the meanings and inflections that accumulated around different kinds of fruit related to contemporary concepts of gender, class, and race.Examining the intersection of literary tradition and horticultural innovation, The Language of Fruit traces how writers from Andrew Marvell to Jane Austen responded to the challenges posed by the evolving social, economic, and symbolic functions of fruit over the long eighteenth century.

Contents:

Introduction. Discoursing with Fruit Trees

"I Am the True Vine": The Uses of Fruit in Biblical and Classical Tradition

"A Chiefe Meanes to Enrich This Common-Wealth": The Language of Fruit in Horticultural Literature

"Stumbling on Melons": Negotiating the Garden in Seventeenth-Century Verse

"You Have Only Squeezed My Orange": The Fungibility of Fruit in Restoration Drama

"The Native Zest and Flavour of the Fruit": Constructions of the Apple in Eighteenth-Century Georgic

"Unnatural Productions": Cultivating the Pineapple in the Romantic Period Novel

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812295832

0812295838