Title: At zero point
First published: 1998
Description: Rose Zimbardo's hypothesis is based on Hans Blumenberg's concept of "zero point" - the moment when an epistemology collapses under the weight of questions it has itself raised and simultaneously a new epistemology begins to construct itself. Zimbardo demonstrates that the Restoration marked both the collapse of the Renaissance order and the birth of modernism (with its new conceptions of self, nation, gender, language, logic, subjectivity, and reality).

Zimbardo examines works by Rochester, Oldham, Wycherley, and the early Swift for examples of Restoration deconstructive satire that, she argues, measure the collapse of Renaissance epistemology. Constructive satire, as exemplified in works by Dryden, has at its discursive center the "I" from which all order arises to be projected to the external world.
Subjects: History and criticism, Semiotics and literature, Discourse analysis, Literary, Satire, English, English literature, Language and culture, English Satire, Literary Discourse analysis, History, Great britain, history, restoration, 1660-1688, English literature, history and criticism, early modern, 1500-1700, Satire, english, history and criticism
Places: England, Great Britain
Time periods: 17th century, Early modern, 1500-1700, Restoration, 1660-1688
LC classification: PR934 .Z56 1998