Nothing to admire
Subtitle: the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill
By: Christopher Yu.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 219
Subjects: Merrill, James Ingram -- Criticism and interpretation; Verse satire, English -- History and criticism; Political poetry, English -- History and criticism; Politics and literature -- English-speaking countries; Political poetry, American -- History and criticism; Verse satire, American -- History and criticism
Description: "Nothing to Admire argues for the persistence of a central tradition of poetic satire in English that extends from Restoration England to present-day America. This tradition is rooted in John Dryden's and Alexander Pope's uses of Augustan metaphor to criticize the abuse of social and political power and to promote an antithetical ideal of satiric authority based on freedom of mind. Because of their commitment to neoclassical conceptions of political virtue, the British Augustans developed a meritocratic cultural ideal grounded in poetic judgment and opposed to the political institutions and practices of their superiors in birth, wealth, and might. Their Augustanism thus gives a political meaning to the Horatian principle of nil admirari. This book calls the resulting outlook "cultural liberalism" in order to distinguish it from the classical liberal insistence on private property as the basis of political liberty, a conviction that arises within the same general period and often stands in adversarial relation to the Augustan mentality."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-211) and index.