| William Cobbett: The Politics of Style Contributor(s): Nattrass, L. (Author), Nattrass, Leonora (Author), Chandler, James (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0521460360 ISBN-13: 9780521460361 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $75.99 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 1995 Annotation: This book offers the first thoroughgoing literary analysis of William Cobbett as a writer. Leonora Nattrass explores the nature and effect of Cobbett's rhetorical strategies, showing through close examination of a broad selection of his polemical writings (from his early American journalism onwards) the complexity, self-consciousness and skill of his stylistic procedures. Her close readings examine the political implications of Cobbett's style within the broader context of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century political prose and argue that his perceived ideological and stylistic flaws - inconsistency, bigotry, egoism and political nostalgia - are in fact rhetorical strategies designed to appeal to a range of usually polarized reading audiences. Cobbett's ability to imagine and to address socially divided readers within a single text, the book argues, constitutes a politically disruptive challenge to prevailing political and social assumptions about their respective rights, duties, needs and abilities. This rereading revises a prevailing critical consensus that Cobbett is an unselfconscious populist whose writings reflect rather than challenge the ideological paradoxes and problems of his time. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Great Britain - General - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Dewey: 941.073 |
| LCCN: 94014479 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Romanticism (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 0.96" H x 6.26" W x 9.28" (1.10 lbs) 264 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book offers the first thoroughgoing literary analysis of William Cobbett as a writer. Leonora Nattrass explores the nature and effect of Cobbett's rhetorical strategies, through close examination of a broad selection of his polemical writings from his early American journalism onward. She examines the political implications of Cobbett's style within the broader context of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century political prose, and argues that his perceived ideological and stylistic flaws--inconsistency, bigotry, egoism and political nostalgia--are in fact strategies designed to appeal to a range of usually polarized reading audiences. |
