Emergent Nation: Early Modern British Literature in Transition, 1660–1714: Volume 3

This insightful work examines the transformative literary landscape between 1660 and 1714, highlighting significant ideological and cultural shifts. Emergent Nation presents original analyses of the period's literature.

This book enriches the fields of Restoration and early eighteenth-century literary studies by integrating recent critical perspectives and reframing the years 1660–1714 as a period of radical emergence and potential generative coherence. Each of the twenty chapters captures the current state of the field while advancing original, revisionary arguments. The years 1660 to 1714 represent a complex transitional period, situated between two dominant periodization frameworks: early modern and the long eighteenth century.

Containing narratives of disruption, restoration, and reconfiguration, Emergent Nation: Early Modern British Literature in Transition, 1660–1714 explores the connections and separations between historical and literary developments during this time. The sociable, rivalrous textual world of letters not only registered but also accelerated significant changes. Each of the four parts of the volume emphasizes the relationship of various literary forms to a specific type of transformation, whether it be generic, ideological, cultural, or local.

The five chapters in each section rigorously examine the conditions that influenced the literary transformations of the period, interrogating the traditions that both canonical and lesser-known writers inherited, adapted, and often challenged. By advocating for an early mimetically produced English nation, this book makes innovative contributions to the understanding of nationalism during this era, offering penetrating, original analyses of the literature from 1660–1714 in relation to various transitions.