Mania and Literary Style The Rhetoric of Enthusiasm from the Ranters to Christopher Smart |
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| Author:
| Hawes, Clement |
| Contribution by:
| Erskine-Hill, Howard
Richetti, John |
| Series title: | Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-521-02202-6 |
| Publication Date: | Nov 2005 |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $42.99 |
Book Description:
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This highly original study of the 'manic style' in enthusiastic writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries identifies a line of influence running from the radical visionary and prophetic writing of the Ranters and their fellow enthusiasts to the work of Jonathan Swift and Christopher Smart. Its account of the dominant culture's ridicule of enthusiastic writing (an attitude which persists in twentieth-century literary history and criticism) provides a powerful and daring...
More DescriptionThis highly original study of the 'manic style' in enthusiastic writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries identifies a line of influence running from the radical visionary and prophetic writing of the Ranters and their fellow enthusiasts to the work of Jonathan Swift and Christopher Smart. Its account of the dominant culture's ridicule of enthusiastic writing (an attitude which persists in twentieth-century literary history and criticism) provides a powerful and daring critique of pervasive assumptions about madness and sanity in literature.