Arguments of Augustan wit / John Sitter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sitter, John E., author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 11.

Cambridge studies in eighteenth-century English literature and thought ; 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 63 B.C.-14 A.D--Influence.

Augustus.

English wit and humor--History and criticism.

English wit and humor.

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

English literature.

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English literature--Roman influences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 188 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Comic and satiric literature from the 1670s to the 1740s is characterized by the allusive and elusive word play of Augustan wit. The arguments of Augustan wit reveal preoccupations with the metaphorical dimension of language so distrusted by Locke and others who saw it as fundamentally opposed to the rational mode of judgement. John Sitter makes a challenging claim for the importance of wit in the writings of Dryden, Rochester, Prior, Berkeley, Gay, Pope and Swift, as an analytic mode as well as one of stylistic sophistication. He argues that wit - often regarded by modern critics as a quaint category of verbal cleverness - in fact offers to literary theory a legacy corrective of Romantic and neo-Romantic idealizations of imagination. This study aims at once to emphasize the historical specificity of Augustan writing, and to bring its arguments into dialogue with those of our time.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781139085762

113908576X

9780511553547

0511553544

Publisher Number:

2027/heb07579 hdl