Poetry and the Making of the English Literary Past: 1660-1781

by Richard Terry

Overview

This book explores how the English literary past was made. It charts how antiquarians unearthed the raw materials of the English (or more widely) British tradition; how scholars drafted narratives about the development of native literature; and how critics assigned the leading writers to canons of literary greatness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198186236
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/27/2001
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Richard Terry is Reader in Eighteenth-Century English Literature, University of Sunderland

Table of Contents

List of AbbreviationsList of Illustrations1. 'Literature': The Morphology of a Concept2. The Progress of Poesy: Making an English Canon3. Authorial Dictionaries and the Cult of Fame4. Myths of Origin: The Canon of Pre-Chaucerian Poetry5. Dryden and the Idea of a Literary Tradition6. Teaching English Literature7. Johnson's Lives of the Poets8. Making the Female Canon9. Classicists and Gothicists: The Division of the EstateAppendicesNotesBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"This is a highly readable and informative book that will be enjoyed by many."—Modern Language Quarterly

From the Publisher

Terry (18th-century English literature, U. of Sunderland, UK) examines the canon that resulted from compilations of English poets made by antiquarians in the late 17th century. The themes that developed from this canon, rather than its application in various venues, are traced in detail. These include an analysis of the morphology of the concept of literature, the creation of dictionaries of authors, the increasing fame attached to certain writers, the myth of English literature's origins in writers before Chaucer, Dryden, Johnson, the female canon, and the division of interpretation between classicists and gothicists. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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