Allegory in Enlightenment Britain: Literary Abominations

by Jason J. Gulya

Overview

This Palgrave Pivot argues for the significance of allegory in Enlightenment writing. While eighteenth-century allegory has often been dismissed as an inadequate form, both in its time and in later scholarship, this short book reveals how Enlightenment writers adapted allegory to the cultural changes of the time. It examines how these writers analyzed earlier allegories with scientific precision and broke up allegory into parts to combine it with other genres. These experimentations in allegory reflected the effects of empiricism, secularization and a modern aesthetic that were transforming Enlightenment culture. Using a broad range of examples – including classics of the genre, eighteenth-century texts and periodicals – this book argues that the eighteenth century helped make allegory the flexible, protean literary form it is today. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031190360
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/02/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	373 KB

About the Author

​Jason J. Gulya is Professor of English at Berkeley College, USA, where he teaches courses on literature, composition, film, and the humanities more broadly. Over the last decade, he has taught at Berkeley, Rutgers University, Raritan Valley Community College, and Brookdale Community College. As a professor, he has earned various prestigious awards, including his college’s Faculty of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020 and Rutgers University’s Dissertation Teaching Award in 2015.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: How the British Enlightenment Transformed Allegory.- 2 How Bunyan’s Anxieties About Allegory Sparked a Culture of Experimentation.- 3 How Dryden Created an Abomination that Would Haunt the Next Century.- 4 How Prose Experiments Dissected Allegory.- 5 How Critics Retrofitted Rules for Allegory.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Jason Gulya’s Literary Abominations makes a fresh and insightful contribution to the ongoing scholarly retrieval of allegory in the long eighteenth century. Surveying a wide range of both literary and critical writings of the period, Gulya argues thoughtfully and persuasively that the critiques of allegory in the British Enlightenment paradoxically led to the reinvention and revitalization of allegory through the dissection of allegory into component parts that could be blended with other genres. This book will become a key study of a vital moment in the story of how allegory has survived and thrived into the present day as an effective mode of representing hidden realities.” (David Parry, Lecturer of English at University of Exeter)

“Jason Gulya's Allegory in Enlightenment Britain: Literary Abominations provides a fresh and intelligent intervention into the received history of allegory. The book argues persuasively that, rather than destroying the allegory, British Enlightenment writers transformed the form into one that is linked meaningfully to its history and also adaptable to a constantly changing present and future.” (Kirsten T. Saxton, Professor of English at Mills College at Northeastern University)

“Offering a fresh, nuanced reading, Jason Gulya argues that the death of allegory during the Enlightenment has been greatly exaggerated. He illustrates how writers adapted allegory, a genre he sees as supple enough to accommodate the new and experimental ways of understanding the world that characterizes Enlightenment thinking and writing.” (Sharon Harrow, Professor of English at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania)

“Allegory in Enlightenment Britain takes yet another step forward in the advancing recovery of allegory's long-disavowed modern history. In a deft account of literary allegory's progressive and decisive transformation by British Enlightenment writers, it offers notonly a compelling reminder that allegory survived its presumed Enlightenment demise, but also a close, yet broadly-illuminating account of precisely how literary allegory changed and adapted during this crucial period of generic attack. More than simply providing scholars of the period and context with a valuable resource, Allegory in Enlightenment Britain offers a significant contribution to our understanding of how modern allegory evolved.” (Matthew S. Buckley, Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University)