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The morals and taste of a nation: rhetoric, criticism, and the rise of the English novel
Downs, Jack Matthew
Downs, Jack Matthew
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[Fort Worth, Tex.] : Texas Christian University,
Date
2011
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Abstract
The task of developing a history of the English novel requires the inclusion of a vast range of cultural, economic, religious, social, and aesthetic influences. But the role of eighteenth-century English rhetorical theory in the emergence of the novel - and the critical discourse surrounding that emergence - is often neglected or forgotten. The influence of rhetorical theory in the development of the English novel is undeniable, and changes to rhetorical theory in England during the eighteenth century led to the development of a critical aesthetic discourse about the novel in Victorian England. Rather than assert the direct influence of eighteenth-century rhetoric on the novel and its critical reception in Victorian England, I argue that eighteenth-century rhetorical theory played a key role in developing a horizon of expectation concerning the nature and purpose of the novel that extended well into the nineteenth century. There is a connection among the emergence of the English novel, eighteenth-century rhetorical theory, and Victorian novel criticism that has been overlooked or lost; this dissertation recovers and articulates that connection--Abstract.
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Subject
Subject(s)
English fiction 18th century History and criticism.
English fiction 19th century History and criticism.
English language Rhetoric.
Rhetoric History 18th century.
Literary form History 18th century.
Literature and society Great Britain History 18th century.
English fiction 19th century History and criticism.
English language Rhetoric.
Rhetoric History 18th century.
Literary form History 18th century.
Literature and society Great Britain History 18th century.
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Dissertation
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Department
English