Literature, Satire and the Early Stuart State

by Andrew McRae

• ISBN13: 9780521814959
• ISBN10: 0521814952
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Andrew McRae examines the relation between literature and politics at a pivotal moment in English history. He argues that the most influential and incisive political satire in this period may be found in manuscript libels, scurrilous pamphlets, and a range of other material written and circulated under the threat of censorship. These are the unauthorized texts of early Stuart England. From his analysis of these texts, McRae argues that satire, as the pre-eminent literary mode of discrimination and stigmatization, helped people make sense of the confusing political conditions of the early Stuart era. It did so partly through personal attacks, and partly also through sophisticated interventions into ongoing political and ideological debates. In such forms, satire provided resources through which contemporary writers could define alternative models of political identity and construct interesting discourses of dissent. This book will be of interest to political and literary historians alike.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I. Personal Politics: 1. The culture of early Stuart Libelling

2. Contesting identity

Part II. Public Politics: 3. Freeing the tongue and the heart: satire and the political subject

4. Discourses of discrimination: political satire in the 1620s

Part III. The Politics of Division: 5. Satire and sycophancy: Richard Corbett and early Stuart royalism

6. Stigmatizing Prynne: puritanism and politics in the 1630s

Epilogue.