The Revolution in Popular Literature: Print, Politics and the People, 1790-1860: 44 (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Series Number 44)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/9/2009
EAN 9780521103497, ISBN10: 0521103495
Paperback, 352 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book takes a new look at the evolution of popular literature in Britain in the Romantic and Victorian periods. Ian Haywood argues that developments in the history of popular literature emerged from its intersection with radical and reactionary politics of the time. Both sides wanted to win the heart and mind of the 'common reader' and used books to try to influence a newly literate group in society. Making use of a wide range of archival and primary sources, he argues that radical politics played a decisive role in the transformation of popular literature from the plebeian miscellany of the 1790s to the mass-circulation fiction and popular journalism of the 1840s. By charting the key moments in the history of 'cheap' literature, the book casts light on the many neglected popular genres and texts: the 'pig's meat' anthology, the female-authored didactic tale, and Chartist fiction.
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. 'A New Area in Our History'
1. The people's Enlightenment
the radical diffusion of knowledge in the late eighteenth century
2. Writing for their country
the plebeian public sphere in the 1790s
3. The pax femina? Hannah More, counter-revolution, and the politics of female agency
Part II. 'Virtuous Public Excitement'
4. The Palladium of liberty
radical journalism and repression in the postwar era
5. 'Democratic fervour and journal ascendancy'
popular culture and the 'unstamped' wars of the 1830s
Part III. A Literature of Their Own
6. The Chartist revolution
7. Fathers of the cheap press or 'able speculators'? Edward Lloyd and George W. M. Reynolds
8. The rights and wrongs of women
9. Acts of oblivion
1848 and after.