Description

The last major work by Marilyn Butler, leading literary critic of the late twentieth century, on imaginative ideas of nationhood. Witty, informative, full of sharp and provocative insights, this study by leading scholar, Marilyn Butler, offers a compelling account of the varied, ambitious 'mythologies' of the nation developed by writers in eighteenth-century Britain who felt themselves to be marginalized or excluded from centres of power. Witty, informative, full of sharp and provocative insights, this study by leading scholar, Marilyn Butler, offers a compelling account of the varied, ambitious 'mythologies' of the nation developed by writers in eighteenth-century Britain who felt themselves to be marginalized or excluded from centres of power. In this groundbreaking work of revisionary literary history, Marilyn Butler traces the imagining of alternative versions of the nation in eighteenth-century Britain, both in the works of a series of well-known poets (Akenside, Thomson, Gray, Collins, Chatterton, Macpherson, Blake) and in the differing accounts of the national culture offered by eighteenth-century antiquarians and literary historians. She charts the beginnings in eighteenth-century Britain of what is now called cultural history, exploring how and why it developed, and the issues at stake. Her interest is not simply in a succession of great writers, but in the politics of a wider culture, in which writers, scholars, publishers, editors, booksellers, readers all play their parts. For more than thirty years, Marilyn Butler was a towering presence in eighteenth-century and romantic studies, and this major work is published for the first time. Preface Heather Glen; 1. Mapping mythologies; 2. Thomson and Akenside; 3. Collins and Gray; 4. The forgers: Macpherson and Chatterton; 5. Popular antiquities; 6. Blake; Coda. 'This study of the 'mythologies' informing eighteenth-century British poetry is a book that Marilyn Butler was working on at the height of her powers, when she had already published major works on Maria Edgeworth, Thomas Love Peacock, Jane Austen, and Romantic writing more broadly. Had Butler managed to publish it a quarter of a century ago, surely it would be still be vigorously engaged by students of this field, just as those other books still are. Now, thanks to the skill and assiduity of Heather Glen's editorial endeavours, those same readers will be able to engage for the first time. What a rare experience they have in prospect.' James Chandler, University of Chicago 'The book is a pleasure to read and captures Marilyn Butler's erudite, scholarly voice, always rich in charm and humour. One of the beauties of this study is that in it Butler writes at a level of generalization that articulates the tradition she has uncovered, yet always keeping the readers' senses alive to the boldness and idiosyncrasies of the writers she discusses. Mapping Mythologies will be cause for renewed interest in Butler's work as a whole and its importance to the study of the literary past.' Anne Janowitz, Emerita Professor, Queen Mary, University of London 'Mapping Mythologies is an unexpected gift from Marilyn Butler to her many admirers. Once again, we hear the fertility and originality of her ideas in a new literary history of popular antiquarianism in which she wittily and elegantly maps the provincial, socially marginal but highly influential British mythmakers of the later eighteenth century.' Deirdre Coleman, Robert Wallace Chair of En