Dissenting Pessimism in Anna Letitia Barbauld’s Radical Writing
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This paper attempts to identify the sources of Anna L. Barbauld’s pessimistic vision of the future Britain, which distinguishes her from her fellow Dissenters, especially Joseph Priestley. A millennialist outlook on history pervades Priestley’s An Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768), a defense of the rights of Dissenters, and his 1788 sermon on the slave trade. Here Priestley’s commitment to radical causes is based on the assumption that the course of human history is progressive—that even social evils of slavery and religious discrimination are part of the process by which the human race is progressing towards a free, just society under God’s providence. Barbauld, however, departs from an optimistic view of history held by her co-religionists. Her engagement with issues of Dissent, An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (1790), is full of unwomanly rage at an infringement of Dissenters’ civil rights, which seemed to her a betrayal of the ideals of liberty that the British had upheld. Her Epistle to William Wilberforce (1791) also unleashes fury at the appalling state of moral decay in her country. In the poet’s judgment, Britain is doomed to self-destruction by not abandoning slavery and hence extinguishing the spirit of liberty. Barbauld’s break with the mainstream of Dissenting thought, i.e., her apocalyptic vision of the nation’s decline and fall, becomes more evident in Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (1812). As a liberal Dissenter, Barbauld had a firm belief in the idea of individual liberty and so found herself despairing of the political state of Britain, which gradually distanced her from Dissenting millenarianism. This distance made her political writing truly radical.
Abstract
This paper attempts to identify the sources of Anna L. Barbauld’s pessimistic vision of the future Britain, which distinguishes her from her fellow Dissenters, especially Joseph Priestley. A millennialist outlook on history pervades Priestley’s An Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768), a defense of the rights of Dissenters, and his 1788 sermon on the slave trade. Here Priestley’s commitment to radical causes is based on the assumption that the course of human history is progressive—that even social evils of slavery and religious discrimination are part of the process by which the human race is progressing towards a free, just society under God’s providence. Barbauld, however, departs from an optimistic view of history held by her co-religionists. Her engagement with issues of Dissent, An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (1790), is full of unwomanly rage at an infringement of Dissenters’ civil rights, which seemed to her a betrayal of the ideals of liberty that the British had upheld. Her Epistle to William Wilberforce (1791) also unleashes fury at the appalling state of moral decay in her country. In the poet’s judgment, Britain is doomed to self-destruction by not abandoning slavery and hence extinguishing the spirit of liberty. Barbauld’s break with the mainstream of Dissenting thought, i.e., her apocalyptic vision of the nation’s decline and fall, becomes more evident in Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (1812). As a liberal Dissenter, Barbauld had a firm belief in the idea of individual liberty and so found herself despairing of the political state of Britain, which gradually distanced her from Dissenting millenarianism. This distance made her political writing truly radical.
참고문헌 (22)
- Laura Alexander, "Literary Hybridity and the Aesthetic of Suffering and Desire in Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets", 영미문학페미니즘, 24(3), pp.159~182 (2016), 한국영미문학페미니즘학회
- "Dystopian Futures: Time-Travel and Millenarian Visions in the Poetry of Anna Barbauld and Charlotte Smith" (2001)[URL]
- Clery, E. J., "Anna Letitia Barbauld: New Perspectives", pp.173~194 (2014), Bucknell UP
- Fitzpatrick, Martin., "Joseph Priestley, Scientist, Philosopher, and Theologian", pp.113~143 (2008), Oxford UP
- Fruchtman, Jack, "The Apocalyptic Politics of Richard Price and Joseph Priestley: A Study in Late Eighteenth-Century English Republican Millennialism", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 73, pp.1~125 (1983)
- Fulford, Tim., "Romanticism and Millenarianism", pp.1~22 (2002), Palgrave
- Garrett, Clarke, "Joseph Priestley, the Millennium, and the French Revolution", Journal of the History of Ideas, 34, pp.51~66 (1973)
- Gottlieb, Evan, "Fighting Words: Representing the Napoleonic Wars in the Poetry of Hemans and Barbauld", European Romantic Review, 20(3), pp.327~343 (2009)
- Keach, William, "A Regency Prophecy and the End of Anna Barbauld’s Career", Studies in Romanticism, 33(4), pp.569~577 (1994)
- Kitson, Peter J., "Romanticism and Millenarianism", pp.37~52 (2002), Palgrave
- McCarthy, William, "Anna Letitia Barbauld:Selected Poetry & Prose" (2002), Broadview
- McCarthy, William, "Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment" (2008), The Johns Hopkins UP
- McCarthy, William, "Religious Dissent and the Aikin-Barbauld Circle 1740-1860", pp.52~69 (2012), Cambridge UP
- Mee, Jon., "Vol. 3of Romanticism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies, 4 vols", pp.111~145 (2006), Routledge
- Mellor, Anne K., "The Female Poet and the Poetess: Two Traditions of British Women’s Poetry, 1780-1830", Studies in Romanticism, 36(2), pp.261~276 (1997)
- Newlyn, Lucy., "Reading, Writing, and Romanticism: The Anxiety of Reception" (2000), Oxford UP
- 박혜영, "메리 로빈슨-- 여성 시인의 자아의식과 그 재현의 (성)정치성", 영미문학페미니즘, 9(1), pp.25~47 (2001), 한국영미문학페미니즘학회
- Priestley, Joseph., "A Sermon on the Subject of the Slave Trade;delivered to a Society of Protestant Dissenters, at the New Meeting, in Birmingham: and published at their Request", J. Johnson
- Priestley, Joseph., "Political Writings" (1993), Cambridge UP
- Sachs, Jonathan., "The Time of Decline", European Romantic Review, 22(3), pp.305~312 (2011)
- Schofield, Robert E., "The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1733 to 1773" (1997), Pennsylvania State UP
- Watkins, Daniel P., "Anna Letitia Barbauld and Eighteenth-Century Visionary Poetics" (2012), The John Hopkins UP