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The Philosophical and Literary Anarchism of William Godwin Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 6-14-2011 12:00 AM Romantic Anarche: The Philosophical and Literary Anarchism of William Godwin Jared M. McGeough University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Tilottama Rajan The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jared M. McGeough 2011 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation McGeough, Jared M., "Romantic Anarche: The Philosophical and Literary Anarchism of William Godwin" (2011). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 163. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/163 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ROMANTIC ANARCHE: THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY ANARCHISM OF WILLIAM GODWIN (ROMANTIC ANARCHE: WILLIAM GODWIN) Monograph by Jared McGeough Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Jared McGeough 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Tilottama Rajan Dr. Orrin Wang Supervisory Committee ______________________________ Dr. Mark Franke ______________________________ Dr. Joel Faflak ______________________________ Dr. Monika Lee ______________________________ Dr. ______________________________ Dr. Jan Plug The thesis by Jared Michael McGeough entitled: Romantic Anarche: The Philosophical and Literary Anarchism of William Godwin is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theory and Criticism ______________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract This study examines the philosophical and literary anarchism of William Godwin. Through an analysis of several of Godwin‘s major works, including Political Justice (1793, 1796, 1798), ―Of History and Romance‖ (1798), and his novels Caleb Williams (1794), St. Leon (1799) and Mandeville (1817), I argue that Godwin‘s relationship both to the intellectual history of anarchism and its literary expression in the form of the historical romance is more complex than has been recognized. In order to tease out this complexity, I approach Godwin from the perspective of recent critics who reread the ideals of classical anarchism through post-structuralist theory. Rather than reduce Godwin to contemporary approaches to anarchism, however, this study demonstrates that Godwin‘s texts anticipate and participate in a continuing dialogue with, and deconstruction of, the Enlightenment suppositions of his own anarchism. This questioning leads to a conception of anarchy in Godwin that comes to mean something quite different from ―anarchism.‖ Anarchy, rather, designates something closer to its root sense in the term anarchē, an existence without archē: principle or origin. Anarchē less names a political ideology so much as a ―negativity‖ in the heart of archē that refuses any sanctioning of things as they are, embracing an idea of history and subjectivity predicated on contingency. The anarchē evidenced within Godwin‘s corpus unworks the possibility of any rational politics from within, showing rationality itself to be interminably afflicted by its own ―groundlessness.‖ In this respect, Godwin can be read alongside a broader shift in the history of ideas, beginning in romanticism, which traces a growing skepticism towards the emancipatory projects of Enlightenment. One of the tributary aims of this study is therefore to make a case for Godwin as a romantic writer, if by ―romantic‖ we refer to a ―literature involved in the restless process of self-examination‖ (Rajan, Dark Interpreter 25). By examining this ―restless process‖ in several of Godwin‘s works, this study contributes both to the fields of contemporary anarchist theory as well as romantic studies by extending a conceptual bridge between the political and literary histories of ideas in which Godwin himself participates, but is often marginalized. iii Keywords Godwin, William; Anarchism; Romanticism; Deconstruction; Enlightenment; Post- Structuralism; Post-Anarchism; Hume, David; Deleuze, Gilles; Derrida, Jacques iv Acknowledgments This work would simply not have been possible without the support, guidance, understanding, and especially, the patience of my supervisor Dr. Tilottama Rajan. To say that Dr. Rajan has had a profound impact on my own thought would be an understatement: her intellectual rigor and sophistication has been nothing short of inspiring. Dr. Joel Faflak must also be recognized, whose advice and warm encouragement over the years has been invaluable for the completion of this project. I would also like to express my gratitude to the prior and current directors of the Centre for Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Calin Mihailescu and Dr. Veronica Schild, for allowing me to be part of such a stimulating and unique intellectual environment. I also acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for helping fund this project. I am forever indebted to those professional colleagues, friends, and family whose understanding and kindness I can never hope to adequately repay: Dr. Lynn Wells, Dr. Peter Schwenger, Matthew Austin, Jason Dockstader, Matthew Sang, the Romanticism at Western Reading and Research Group (Joshua Lambier, Christopher Bundock, and Naquaa Abbas), my parents Lorie and Mick, my brother Luke, and my sister Kara. Finally: this, and my love, are and always will be for my partner Shannon. An earlier version of Chapter 4 was published in CLIO 39.3 (2009): 269-92. v Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION ........................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 From Anarchism to Anarchē: Reconsidering William Godwin‘s Anarchism .............. 1 1.1 Classical Anarchism and/as Pragmatic Anthropology ............................................ 6 1.2 From Post-Anarchism to Anarchē: ....................................................................... 13 1.3 Chapter Outline ..................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 31 2 ―So Variable and Inconstant a System‖: the Enquiry Concerning Political Justice ... 31 2.1 Arrested Development: Epistemology and Institution .......................................... 36 2.2 The Anarchē of Perfectibility………………...…………………………………..43 2.3 Perfectibility and/as Potentiality ........................................................................... 51 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 60 3 The History of an Error we Call Truth: Caleb Williams .............................................. 60 3.1 The (Im)Pure Principles of Ancient Gallantry ...................................................... 65 3.2 A Fatal Impulse ..................................................................................................... 76 3.3 Split-Ends: From Defeatism to ―Responsible‖ Anarchy ...................................... 86 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 93 4 ―The Falsehood of History and the Truth of Romance‖: ―Of History and Romance‖ 93 4.1 General History, or, Nothing is New Under the Sun ............................................ 98 vi 4.2 Individual History, or, Nothing is Old Under the Sun ........................................ 103 4.3 Between Individual History and Romance ......................................................... 114 Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 120 5 Gambling, Alchemy, and Anarchy in St. Leon ......................................................... 120 5.1 Just Gaming: Gambling as Simulacrum .............................................................. 127 5.2 Archē-Oikos: The Domestic Affections ..............................................................
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