Mania and literary style : the rhetoric of enthusiasm from the Ranters to Christopher Smart / Clement Hawes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hawes, Clement, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 29.

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 29

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771. Jubilate agno.

Smart, Christopher.

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

English literature.

Enthusiasm in literature.

Literature and mental illness--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Literature and mental illness.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Literature and society.

English language--18th century--Rhetoric.

English language.

English language--18th century--Style.

Levellers.

Ranters.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 243 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Mania & Literary Style

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This highly original study of the 'manic style' in enthusiastic writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries identifies a literary tradition and line of influence running from the radical visionary and prophetic writing of the Ranters and their fellow enthusiasts to the work of Jonathan Swift and Christopher Smart. Clement Hawes offers a counterweight to recent work which has addressed the subject of literature and madness from the viewpoint of contemporary psychological medicine, putting forward instead a stylistic and rhetorical analysis. He argues that the writings of dissident 'enthusiastic' groups are based in social antagonisms; and his account of the dominant culture's ridicule of enthusiastic writing (an attitude which persists in twentieth-century literary history and criticism) provides a powerful and daring critique of pervasive assumptions about madness and sanity in literature.

Contents:

pt. 1. Defiant voice

pt. 2. Patrician diagnosis

pt. 3. Challenging liminality.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780511835346

0511835345

9781139085656

1139085654

9780511553486

051155348X

Publisher Number:

2027/heb07596 hdl