Politics and Poetry in Restoration England: The Case of Dryden's <i>Annus Mirabilis</i>

This book poses a fundamental question in the understanding of topical poetry: the relationship between its aesthetic and its political qualities. Maintaining that a work like Annus Mirabilis can be comprehended only if these qualities are perceived as inseparable, Michael McKeon offers a “rhetorical analysis” of Dryden’s poem—an account of Dryden’s poetic and political strategies juxtaposed with an extensive investigation of the historical context and audience that evoked them: the public response to the Restoration settlement, the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London; the definition of national interest and the growth of group consciousness during the 1660s; the efflorescence of eschatological prophecy concerning the “wonderful year” 1666. In a concluding discussion McKeon ties his method of rhetorical analysis to a broadly dialectical approach to literature and argues its relevance to other areas of literary history and criticism. This argument confronts some of the central problems of critical relativism: How can aesthetic value have autonomous meaning if it is linked to political value? How can the critic perform the task of artistic evaluation if his judgments are affected by his political orientation? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION: “POLITICAL POETRY” I. GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS, INTEREST, AND UNITY 1. ANNUS MIRABILIS FIRST READING 2. FACTIONALISM: THE CIVIL WAR LEGACY 3. NAVAL WAR AND TRADE 4. ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON II. ESCHATOLOGICAL PROPHECY 5. ANNUS MIRABILIS SECOND READING 6. DISSENTING PROPHECY 7. IDEOLOGICALLY PROBLEMATIC PROPHECY 8. ROYALIST PROPHECY 9. HISTORY AND PROPHECY CONCLUSION: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS AND DIALECTICAL CRITICISM BIBLIOGRAPHY. INDEX BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Michael Mckeon. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. [285]-326.