Historical Literatures
Subtitle: Writing About the Past in England, 1660-1740
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: Oct 02, 2012
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780719087622
Description: 'Historical literatures' recovers a rich, vibrant and complex tradition of Restoration and early-eighteenth century English historical writing. Highlighting the wide variety of historical works being printed and read in England between the years of 1660 and 1740, it demonstrates that many of the genres that we now view primarily as literary--verse satire and panegyric, memoir, scandal and chronicle--were also being used to represent historical phenomena. In surveying some of this period's 'historical literatures', it argues that many satirists, secret historians and memoirists made their choice of historical subject matter a topic of explicit commentary, presenting themselves as historians or inscribing their works in an English historical tradition. By responding to other varieties of history in this self-conscious way, writers like Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Delarivier Manley, Daniel Defoe and John Evelyn were able to pioneer influential new techniques for representing their nation's past.
Notes: Source title: Historical Literatures: Writing About the Past in England, 1660-1740