The Springs of Liberty: The Satiric Tradition and Freedom of Speech

by Stewart Justman

Overview

The Springs of Liberty takes up questions of literary history and theory and explores sources of power harnessed by modern political doctrines and the journalism that conveys them to the public. These forces of opinion are traced to a tradition deeper and older than either: satire. In that tradition—its power, diversity, and license—the author locates the spirit of free speech.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810117105
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	10/30/1999
Series:	Rethinking Theory
Edition description:	1
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

STEWART JUSTMAN is a professor in the Liberal Studies Program at the University of Montana. He is the author of Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology (Ivan R. Dee, 2005), Seeds of Mortality (Ivan R. Dee, 2003), and The Springs of Liberty (1999) and The Psychological Mystique (1998), both published by Northwestern University Press. He is the recipient of the 2004 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.

Table of Contents

	Preface	vii
	Introduction	1
1.	Chaucer and the Rehearsal of Voices	22
2.	Addison: Satire and Civility	34
3.	Swift: The Priority of Satire	45
4.	Interlude: Satire and Modern Political Argument	54
5.	The Addisonian Line: Jane Austen	62
6.	Dickens and Satiric Excess: Little Dorrit	71
7.	Trollope and the Moderation of Satire	84
8.	Ulysses: The Art of Surfeit	93
9.	Orwell: The Return to Origins	108
	Afterword	116
	Notes	125
	Index	153

Editorial Reviews

"Do we deserve a book as fine as The Springs of Liberty? This work is at once conservative, bold, and startlingly original. Stewart Justman writes not just with brilliance and broad learning, lightly worn, but also with a simplicity, moral passion, and humane judiciousness that are remote from academic style. . . . [O]ne of the wisest and most penetrating critics now among us." —Frederick Crews

From the Publisher

Justman (English, Univ. of Montana; The Psychological Mystique) examines the genre of satire (from its classical origins to the 20th century), arguing that this form of literature led to modern journalism and political thought (e.g., Marxism). Devoting individual chapters to satirists such as Chaucer, Addison, Swift, Austen, Dickens, Trollope, Joyce, and Orwell, he examines the two different strains of satire--the refined and civilized line and the rougher, more vulgar one. Justman has taken on an ambitious project, and while some of his individual readings are brilliantly explicated, others are too brief and convoluted to support his main thesis. Among other things, he relies too often on the literary theories of the Russian critic M.M. Bakhtin, which he reiterates in most of his chapters. For upper-level and graduate collections only.--Morris Hounion, New York City Technical Coll. Lib., Brooklyn Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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