Slavery and Augustan Literature: Swift, Pope and Gay / Edition 1

by Dr J Richardson

Overview

Slavery and Augustan Literature investigates slavery in the work of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay. These three writers were connected with a Tory ministry, which attempted to increase substantially the English share of the international slave trade. They all wrote in support of the treaty that was meant to effect that increase. The book begins with contemporary ideas about slavery, with the Tory ministry years and with texts written during those years. These texts tend to obscure the importance of the slave trade to Tory planning. In its second half, the book analyses the attitudes towards slavery in Pope's Horatian poems, An Essay on Man, Polly, A Modest Proposal and Gulliver's Travels. John Richardson shows how, despite differences, Swift, Pope and Gay adopt a mixed position of admiration for freedom alongside implicit support for slavery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415312868
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/16/2003
Series:	Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1580L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Richardson teaches literature at the National University of Singapore. His work on eighteenth-century literature, which has appeared in a number of journals, has been principally concerned with the intersections between politics and literature. He is currently investigating the varied and changing literary representations of war during the long eighteenth century.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. The English and Slavery 3. The Scriblerus Club 4. Writing the Peace 5. Pope 6. Gay 7. Swift 8. Conclusion