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Proquest Dissertations NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UM„ I® nm u Ottawa L'Universitd canadienne Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES mn FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTDOCTORALES y Ottawa POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES {.'University emiiuliennc Cnmula's university Morgan Gordon Rooney AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS Ph.D. (English Literature) GRADE/DEGREE Department of English FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT / FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT The Struggle for the Authority of History: The French Revolution Debate and the British Novel, 1790 - 1814 TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS A. London DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE/THESIS EXAMINERS F. De Bruyn I. Ferris I. Dennis p. Sabor Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The Struggle for the Authority of History: The French Revolution Debate and the British Novel, 1790-1814 Morgan Rooney Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD in English Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Morgan Rooney, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59480-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59480-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada ii CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgments v Introduction: "So many remembrances of Edmund Burke": The French Revolution Debate, the Discourses of History, and the British Novel, 1790-1814 1 Chapter 1: Reading History in a Revolutionary Age: Reformist and Conservative Strategies for Interpreting the Past, 1789-94 11 Chapter 2: Order under Siege: The Discourses of History in the Anti-Jacobin Novel, 1799-1800 82 Chapter 3: The Crumbling (E)state: The Problem of History in the Novel of Reform, 1793-1800 129 Chapter 4: Representing History in a Post-Revolutionary Age: Varieties of Early Historical Fiction, 1803-14 185 Bibliography 238 iii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the history of the British novel from 1790 to 1814, arguing that the struggle for the authority of history that took place over the course of the French Revolution debate is foundational to understanding the novel's development in the period. In the political tracts of the 1790s, the Revolution controversy begins as a representational contest over the status of one historical moment (1688) and then escalates into a broad ideological war over the significance of the past for the present and future. The era's various novelistic forms participate in this ideological war, with Jacobin and anti-Jacobin novels, for instance, representing moments of the past or otherwise vying to enlist the authority of history to further a reformist or loyalist agenda, respectively. As the Revolution crisis recedes at the turn of the century, new forms of the novel emerge with new agendas, but historical representation—largely the legacy of the 1790s' novel—remains as an increasingly prevalent feature of the genre. The representation of history in the novel, I argue, is initially used strategically by novelists involved in the Revolution debate, is appropriated for other (often related) causes, and ultimately develops into a stable, non-partisan, aestheticised feature of the form. The novel's transformations in the 1790s, 1800s, and early 1810s thus help to establish the conditions for the emergence of the historical novel as it was first realised in Walter Scott's Waverley (1814). Chapter 1 reviews the political tracts of prominent contributors to the Revolution debate such as Edmund Burke, Richard Price, James Mackintosh, Thomas Paine, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, demonstrating the widespread engagement with history characteristic of the period and the distinctive historical paradigms reformers and loyalists iv invoke in support of their political positions. Chapters 2 and 3 examine how the historical discourses of the 1790s shape the anti-Jacobin and Jacobin novel, respectively. Using Charles Walker, Robert Bisset, and Jane West as its primary examples, chapter 2 argues that the anti- Jacobin novel draws heavily on Burkean historical discourse to develop a variety of tactics—including the representation of select historical moments and conscious attempts to "historicise" their works—whose goal is to characterise the reform movement as ignorant of the complex operations of historical accretion. Turning to Charlotte Smith, William Godwin, and Maria Edgeworth as its principal examples, chapter 3 shows how reformist novels appeal to the period's discourses of history to respond in kind, contesting Burke's logic by consciously travestying his tropes and arguments, by undermining and then re-defining the category of history, and by depicting in detail historical moments that challenge the Burkean paradigm. Investigating the work of Jane Porter, Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), and Walter Scott, chapter 4 demonstrates how early historical forms of the novel and, ultimately, the historical novel as it was realised by Scott emerge, in part, out of the legacy of the political novels of the 1790s. It argues that the novel experiences a generic shift in the early nineteenth century—one marked by continuity, re-deployment, and departure—whereby the political impetus for historical representation is ultimately displaced by aesthetic and, crucially, historicist concerns. V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While completing this thesis, I have acquired a number of debts that I can only hope to begin repaying. A variety of funding bodies—including the University of Ottawa, SSHRCC, OGS, and CSECS—have facilitated the research for, writing of, and presentations on the work contained in the following chapters. Discussions about my work with scholars in attendance at conferences as well as friends and colleagues closer to home, meanwhile, have invariably helped me to clarify my ideas. I owe particular thanks in this regard to Ina Ferris, who patiently answered every Walter Scott question I sent her way; Frans De Bruyn, who cheerfully indulged me with long conversations about Edmund Burke; and April London, whose supportive guidance as a supervisor and keen insight as a scholar are matched only by her unrelenting kindness as a human being. Finally, my fondest thanks for those who lived this project with me on a daily basis: my friends, who celebrated my advances and commiserated my setbacks with me; my family, who unflinchingly supported me in every way possible; and Genny, who often carried a workload for two so that I might have the time to research and write—and who will be glad to hear that "my project" no longer rivals her as the chief recipient of my attention. 1 INTRODUCTION "So many remembrances of Edmund Burke": The French Revolution Debate, the Discourses of History, and the British Novel, 1790-1814 Taking stock of British political and literary culture from the French Revolution to the current post-Waterloo moment of his Biographia Liter aria (1817), Samuel Taylor Coleridge notes the continued, ghostly presence of Edmund Burke. "Our very sign boards (said an illustrious friend to me)," he writes, give evidence, that there has been a TITIAN in the world. In like manner, not only the debates in parliament, not only our proclamations and state papers, but the essays and leading paragraphs of our journals are so many remembrances of EDMUND BURKE. Of this the reader may easily convince himself, if either by recollection or reference he will compare the opposition newspapers at the commencement and during the five or six following years of the French revolution with the sentiments, and grounds of argument
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