Details

Subject(s)

• English drama—17th century—History and criticism [Browse]
• Politics in literature [Browse]
• Politics and literature—Great Britain—History—17th century [Browse]
• Literature and society—Great Britain—History—17th century [Browse]

Series

Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture [More in this series]

Summary note

"Printed Drama and Political Instability in Mid-Seventeenth Century Britain: The Literary Politics of Resistance and Distraction in Plays and Entertainments from 1649-1658 describes the function of printed drama in 1650s Britain. After the regicide of 1649, printed plays could be interpreted by Royalist readers as texts of resistance to the republic and protectoral governments respectively. However, there were often discrepancies between the aspirational content of these plays and the realities facing a Royalist party who had been defeated in the civil wars. Similarly, plays with a classically republican Roman setting failed to offer a successful model for the new republic. Consequently, writers who supported the new republic and, eventually, Cromwell's protectoral government, proposed entertainments, based around the concept of the sublime, whose purpose was affect: that is, creating political amnesia in the audience, thereby nullifying any political dissatisfaction with a non-monarchical form of government. This volume will appeal to students and scholars of seventeenth century literature, and of the political history of 1640s and 1650s Britain"-- Provided by publisher.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• The ambivalent political messaging of printed drama in 1650s Britain
• Poetics as political policy: the republic's early response to Royalist drama, 1649-1651
• "A floating unbalanced peopld": drama and the instability of the republican state, 1651-1653
• They "always speak things as they would have them": the failures of aspirational Royalist drama, 1651-3
• Royalist drama and the legitimacy of authority in the mid-1650s
• Republics and ethics: the moral probity of Protectoral entertainments, 1653-58
• Conclusion: the hijacking of republican poetics.

Show 4 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9781032436678 (hardcover)
• 1032436670 (hardcover)
• 9781032508757 (paperback)
• 1032508752 (paperback)

LCCN

2022060344

OCLC

1369147333

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