Ridicule Religion and the Politics of Wit in Augustan England |
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| Author:
| Lund, Roger D. |
| ISBN: | 978-1-4094-7926-0 |
| Publication Date: | Apr 2012 |
| Publisher: | Ashgate Publishing Company
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| Book Format: | Ebook |
| List Price: | USD $124.95 |
Book Description:
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Arguing for wit's importance beyond its use as a literary device, Lund traces the process by which writers in Restoration and eighteenth-century England struggled to define an appropriate role for wit in the public sphere. He shows how fear of wit as a subversive rhetorical form threatening church and state resulted in attacks on heterodox writers, the Restoration stage and new communal venues such as coffee houses and clubs.
Arguing for wit's importance beyond its use as a literary device, Lund traces the process by which writers in Restoration and eighteenth-century England struggled to define an appropriate role for wit in the public sphere. He shows how fear of wit as a subversive rhetorical form threatening church and state resulted in attacks on heterodox writers, the Restoration stage and new communal venues such as coffee houses and clubs.