Nothing to admire : the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill

Resource Information

The work Nothing to admire : the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Nothing to admire : the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill

Title remainder

the politics of poetic satire from Dryden to Merrill

Statement of responsibility

Christopher Yu

Creator

• Yu, Christopher, 1966-

Subject

• Merrill, James, 1926-1995 -- Criticism and interpretation
• Political poetry, American -- History and criticism
• Political poetry, English -- History and criticism
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Verse satire, American -- History and criticism
• Verse satire, English -- History and criticism
• Politics and literature -- English-speaking countries

Genre

• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

"Nothing to Admire argues for the persistence of a central tradition of poetic satire in English that extends from Restoration England to present-day America. This tradition is rooted in John Dryden's and Alexander Pope's uses of Augustan metaphor to criticize the abuse of social and political power and to promote an antithetical ideal of satiric authority based on freedom of mind. Because of their commitment to neoclassical conceptions of political virtue, the British Augustans developed a meritocratic cultural ideal grounded in poetic judgment and opposed to the political institutions and practices of their superiors in birth, wealth, and might. Their Augustanism thus gives a political meaning to the Horatian principle of nil admirari. This book calls the resulting outlook "cultural liberalism" in order to distinguish it from the classical liberal insistence on private property as the basis of political liberty, a conviction that arises within the same general period and often stands in adversarial relation to the Augustan mentality."--Jacket

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

821.009/358

Index

index present

LC call number

PR508.S27

LC item number

Y8 2003

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography