The talk of the town : figurative publics in eighteenth-century Britain / Ann C. Dean.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dean, Ann C., 1967-

Series:

Bucknell studies in eighteenth-century literature and culture.

Bucknell studies in eighteenth-century literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discourse analysis--Social aspects--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Discourse analysis.

Public opinion--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Public opinion.

Press and politics--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Press and politics.

Coffeehouses--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Coffeehouses.

Press--Great Britain--Influence--History--18th century.

Press.

Great Britain--Intellectual life--18th century.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Civilization--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (146 p.)

Place of Publication:

Lewisburg [Pa.] : Bucknell University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study argues that in eighteenth-century Britain, the public sphere was a figure of speech created by juxtaposed images of more limited, local, and particular arenas of discussion. In letters, newspapers, and books, eighteenth-century British writers described the public qualities of three different spaces: court, coffeehouse, and meeting. Writers referred to the proliferation of these social spaces, describing multiple coffeehouses, drawing rooms, and meetings, among which the customary language of each was circulated in repeated conversations and printed newspapers.These multiple references created a set of interrelated, competing, and mutually defining metaphors and figurations: figurative public spheres. Identifying the relations between these metaphors requires work in an archive that crosses the boundaries between court, coffeehouse, and Parliament, and between manuscript and print. By following figures from one medium to another, and by examining the contexts in which they were used, it is possible to see a social imaginary emerging from the juxtapositions between them. Ann C. Dean is Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-143) and index.

ISBN:

0-8387-5951-3

OCLC:

787852471

Publisher Number:

2027/heb08926 hdl