Synopses & Reviews
This study of Defoe's politics aims to challenge the critical demand to see Defoe as a "modern" and to counter misrepresentations of his political writings by restoring their seventeenth-century context. Offering a full examination of Defoe's years as a political reporter and journalist (1689-1715), it recovers his traditional, conservative and anti-Lockean ideas on contemporary issues: the origins of society, the role of the people in the establishment of a political society and how monarchies are created and maintained as the means of achieving a beneficent political order. At the heart of Defoe's political imagination, Manuel Schonhorn finds the vision of a warrior-king, derived from sources in the Bible, and in ancient and English history. The model illuminates his original reading of Robinson Crusoe, which emerges less in terms of a family romance, a tract for the rising bourgeoisie or a Lockean parable of government, than as a dramatic re-enactment of Defoe's life-long political preoccupations concerning society, government and kingship.
Synopsis
This study challenges the critical demand to see Defoe as a 'modern' and counters misrepresentations of his political writings by restoring their seventeenth-century context. Offering a full contextual examination of Defoe's years as a political journalist (1689-1715), it recovers his traditional, conservative and anti-Lockean ideas on the origins of society, the role of the people in the establishment of a political society, and the monarchy. At the heart of Defoe's political imagination Manuel Schonhorn finds the vision of a warrior-king, which illuminates his original reading of Robinson Crusoe as a dramatic re-enactment of Defoe's lifelong political preoccupations concerning society, government and kingship.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-167) and index.
Table of Contents
Preface and acknowledgments; A note on attributions; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Defoe, dissent and monarchy; 2. Defoeâs Reflections Upon the Late Great Revolution and the political languages of 1689; 3. Defender of the king, 1689 1701; 4. From the death of William III to Jure Divino, 1702 1706; 5. Juro Divino; 6. The politics of Robinson Crusoe; Select bibliography; Index.