The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740

by McKeon, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780801869594
• ISBN10: 0801869595
• Edition: 15th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-22
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, combines historical analysis and readings of extraordinarily diverse texts to reconceive the foundations of the dominant genre of the modern era. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of its initial publication, The Origins of the English Novel stands as essential reading. The anniversary edition features a new introduction in which the author reflects on the considerable response and commentary the book has attracted since its publication by describing dialectical method and by applying it to early modern notions of gender. Challenging prevailing theories that tie the origins of the novel to the ascendancy of "realism" and the "middle class," McKeon argues that this new genre arose in response to the profound instability of literary and social categories. Between 1600 and 1740, momentous changes took place in European attitudes toward truth in narrative and toward virtue in the individual and the social order. The novel emerged, McKeon contends, as a cultural instrument designed to engage the epistemological and social crises of the age.

Author Biography

Michael McKeon is a professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction to the Fifteenth Anniversary Edition	xiii
Introduction: Dialectical Method in Literary History	1	(24)
PART I QUESTIONS OF TRUTH
The Destabilization of Generic Categories	25	(40)
``Romance'' as a Simple Abstraction	26	(2)
Precursor Revolutions: The Greek Enlightenment	28	(5)
Precursor Revolutions: The Twelfth-Century Renaissance	33	(6)
Historicism and the Historical Revolution	39	(6)
The Claim to Historicity	45	(2)
Naive Empiricism and Extreme Skepticism	47	(5)
Romance, Antiromance, True History	52	(13)
The Evidence of the Senses: Secularization and Epistemological Crisis	65	(25)
The Contradictory Unity of the New Philosophy	65	(3)
``Natural History'' as a Narrative Model	68	(5)
``Religion versus Science'' and the Problem of Mediation	73	(4)
The Literalizing of Revelation	77	(6)
Apparition Narratives	83	(7)
Histories of the Individual	90	(41)
From Saint's Life to Spiritual Biography	91	(5)
From Picaresque to Criminal Biography	96	(4)
From Christian Pilgrimage to Scientific Travel	100	(5)
The Empirical Style Becomes Problematic	105	(9)
The Emergence of Extreme Skepticism	114	(4)
Toward Realism, the Aesthetic, and Human Creativity	118	(13)
PART II QUESTIONS OF VIRTUE
The Destabilization of Social Categories	131	(45)
Aristocratic Ideology	131	(3)
Precursor Revolutions: The Greek Enlightenment	134	(6)
Precursor Revolutions: The Twelfth-Century Renaissance	140	(10)
Progressive Ideology and the Transvaluation of Honor	150	(9)
The Rise of the Gentry	159	(3)
From Status to Class	162	(5)
The Persistence of the Aristocracy	167	(2)
The Formation of Conservative Ideology	169	(2)
Understanding Status Inconsistency	171	(5)
Absolutism and Capitalist Ideology: The Volatility of Reform	176	(36)
The Absolute Prince Absolutized	178	(4)
Sword and Robe	182	(7)
Protestants and Capitalists	189	(11)
Evaluating Human Appetites	200	(5)
Progressive Ideology and Conservative Ideology	205	(7)
Stories of Virtue	212	(61)
Novelistic Narrative as Historical Explanation	212	(6)
Historical Models for Progressive Narratives	218	(8)
Historical Models for Conservative Narratives	226	(12)
Ideological Implications of Generic Models	238	(17)
The Gendering of Ideology	255	(10)
The Conflation of Truth and Virtue	265	(8)
PART III THE DIALECTICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE NOVEL
Romance Transformations (I): Cervantes and the Disenchantment of the World	273	(22)
Romance Transformations (II): Bunyan and the Literalization of Allegory	295	(20)
Parables of the Younger Son (I): Defoe and the Naturalization of Desire	315	(23)
Parables of the Younger Son (II): Swift and the Containment of Desire	338	(19)
The Institutionalization of Conflict (I): Richardson and the Domestication of Service	357	(25)
The Institutionalization of Conflict (II): Fielding and the Instrumentality of Belief	382	(28)
Conclusion	410	(13)
Notes	423	(88)
Index	511