Americans in British Literature, 1770-1832: A Breed ApartAmerican independence was inevitable by 1780, but British writers spent the several decades following the American Revolution transforming their former colonists into something other than estranged British subjects. Christopher Flynn's engaging and timely book systematically examines for the first time the ways in which British writers depicted America and Americans in the decades immediately following the revolutionary war. Flynn documents the evolution of what he regards as an essentially anthropological, if also in some ways familial, interest in the former colonies and their citizens on the part of British writers. Whether Americans are idealized as the embodiments of sincerity and virtue or anathematized as intolerable and ungrateful louts, Flynn argues that the intervals between the acts of observing and writing, and between writing and reading, have the effect of distancing Britain and America temporally as well as geographically. Flynn examines a range of canonical and noncanonical works-sentimental novels of the 1780s and 1790s, prose and poetry by Wollstonecraft, Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth; and novels and travel accounts by Smollett, Lennox, Frances Trollope, and Basil Hall. Together, they offer a complex and revealing portrait of Americans as a breed apart, which still resonates today. |
From inside the book
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Page 51
... rights ; that among these are life , liberty , & the pursuit of happiness : that to secure these rights , governments are instituted among men , deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.17 Blake transforms Jefferson's ...
... rights ; that among these are life , liberty , & the pursuit of happiness : that to secure these rights , governments are instituted among men , deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.17 Blake transforms Jefferson's ...
Page 52
... rights guaranteed by the social contract Jefferson invokes.18 This can be argued away as a difference in tone rather than philosophy , inevitable if one considers the distance between Blake's radical urban situation and Jefferson's ...
... rights guaranteed by the social contract Jefferson invokes.18 This can be argued away as a difference in tone rather than philosophy , inevitable if one considers the distance between Blake's radical urban situation and Jefferson's ...
Page 58
... rights of man " in a universal sense , than he is with asserting any American uniqueness . " ( W ) henever the rights of man can be clearly ascertained , " he writes to Arl - ton , " and equality established ... men will regain their ...
... rights of man " in a universal sense , than he is with asserting any American uniqueness . " ( W ) henever the rights of man can be clearly ascertained , " he writes to Arl - ton , " and equality established ... men will regain their ...
Contents
English Novels on the American Revolution | 9 |
Utopian Schemes | 45 |
States of Nature and the Quest for Natural Man | 81 |
Copyright | |
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Americans in British Literature, 1770–1832: A Breed Apart Professor Christopher Flynn Limited preview - 2013 |
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accounts American Revolution Anglo-American appear argued attempt become beginning Blake body brings British Byron century characters civil claims clear Coleridge Coleridge's colonies concept concerning connection considered Corbett cultural death describes despite discourse discussion Domestic early effect eighteenth eighteenth-century Emigrants Emma England English Europe European existence experience fact father feel followed France give Hall Henry hope human Ibid idea imagined Imlay independence Indians Italy land language late later least letters Lismahago living London look manners metaphor move narrative nation nature North America novel object observation original period physical political present progress radical readers references representation represented savage savagery seems seen sense sentimental separate social society space stage sympathy temporal things thought travelers Trollope Trollope's turn United University utopia writes York