Slavery And Augustan Literature: Swift, Pope And Gay (routledgestudies In Eighteenth Century Literature, 2)

Slavery and Augustan Literature Slavery played an important part in early eighteenth-century English society. It created markets, provided goods and drove political decisions. It also exerted an influence on the ways in which people behaved and thought. Some of the mental habits associated with slavery are to be found in the writing of the period. Slavery and Augustan Literature investigates slavery in the work of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay. These three writers were connected with a Tory ministry, which attempted to increase substantially the English share of the international slave trade. They all wrote in support of the treaty that was meant to effect that increase. The book begins with contemporary ideas about slavery, with the Tory ministry years and with texts written during those years. These texts tend to obscure the importance of the slave trade to Tory planning. In its second half, the book analyses the attitudes towards slavery in Pope’s Horatian poems, and An Essay on Man, Gay’s Polly, and Swift’s A Modest Proposal and Gulliver’s Travels. John Richardson shows how, despite differences, Swift, Pope and Gay adopt a mixed position of admiration for freedom alongside implicit support for slavery. Slavery and Augustan Literature provides valuable insights into eighteenth-century attitudes towards slavery, and the relation of literature to society. It also offers new readings of major Augustan texts and will be of essential interest to students and researchers of eighteenth-century literature. John Richardson teaches literature at the National University of Singapore. His work on eighteenth-century literature, which has appeared in a number of journals, has been principally concerned with the intersections between politics and literature. He is currently investigating the varied and changing literary representations of war during the long eighteenth century. Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-century Literature 1 The Epistolary Novel Representations of consciousness Joe Bray 2 Slavery and Augustan Literature Swift, Pope, Gay John Richardson Slavery and Augustan Literature Swift, Pope, Gay John Richardson First published 2004 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 1001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 John Richardson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or tilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record f