Title Before Crusoe : Defoe, voice, and the ministry / Penny Pritchard

Published New York ; London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019

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Description 1 online resource Series Routledge studies in eighteenth-century literature ; 20 Routledge studies in eighteenth-century literature ; 20. Contents The nonconformist catch-22 -- "Our name is legion" : Defoe's authorial personae -- "You must go home, and ask my father" : providence, empiricism, and print culture -- A cold ministry and a careless people : conduct and self after 1715 -- Another island : Robinson Crusoe and beyond Summary "Offering new perspective on the 1719 literary watershed that was Robinson Crusoe, this work argues that Defoe established a new form of moral authority through the spectrum of 'voices' which articulate his earlier works. Defoe's profoundly ambivalent relationship with his London-based nonconformity, as well as the changing popular status of ministerial authority in the period, enabled his crafting of myriad anonymized personae across a diverse canon. Defoe emulates - and sometimes mimics - the rhetorical and moral postures of that most influential cohort of contemporary authority figures, the clergy, even while pointedly distancing himself from them. How and why he does so, as well as the cultural prominence, stylistics, and popular status of contemporary ministers, are explored in depth. Better-known texts before 1719 such as The Storm and The Family Instructor are discussed in relation to writing by contemporary minister-authors; Defoe's conduct works, in particular, are presented as nascent works of narrative prose fiction akin to the novel itself. Important lesser-known works such as The Present State of the Parties (1712) and The Conduct of Christians (1717) also demonstrate Defoe's indictment of popular ministers caught in a moral double-bind between their desire for public recognition and popular print's inherent association with financial ambition. This volume offers alternative readings of Robinson Crusoe and later novels, foregrounding Defoe's reconfiguration of moral and religious authority through his fictional narrators and a very different cultural role for the ministers who feature in them"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on print version record Subject Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 -- Criticism and interpretation SUBJECT Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 fast Crusoe, Robinson (Fictitious character) fast Subject Religion and literature -- England -- History -- 18th century Protestantism and literature -- History -- 18th century Dissenters, Religious, in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Religion and literature Protestantism and literature Dissenters, Religious, in literature Characters and characteristics English literature England Genre/Form Electronic books History Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book LC no. 2020692996 ISBN 9780429640247 0429640242 9780429026744 0429026749 9780429643415 0429643411 9780429637070 0429637071

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