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The Origins of the English Novel, 1600–1740 Kindle Edition
The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, combines historical analysis and readings of extraordinarily diverse texts to reconceive the foundations of the dominant genre of the modern era. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of its initial publication, The Origins of the English Novel stands as essential reading. The anniversary edition features a new introduction in which the author reflects on the considerable response and commentary the book has attracted since its publication by describing dialectical method and by applying it to early modern notions of gender.
Challenging prevailing theories that tie the origins of the novel to the ascendancy of “realism” and the “middle class,” McKeon argues that this new genre arose in response to the profound instability of literary and social categories. Between 1600 and 1740, momentous changes took place in European attitudes toward truth in narrative and toward virtue in the individual and the social order. The novel emerged, McKeon contends, as a cultural instrument designed to engage the epistemological and social crises of the age.
“This book is a formidable attempt to articulate issues of almost imponderable centrality for modern life and literature. McKeon proposes with quite breathtaking ambition and considerable intellectual flourish to redefine the novel’s key role in those immense cultural transformations that produce the modern world.” —Studies in the Novel
“A magisterial work of history and analysis.” —Arts and Letters
“A powerful and solid work that will dominate discussion of its subject for a long time to come.” —The New York Review of Books
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press
- Publication dateMay 13, 2003
- File size2888 KB
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"One of the most rigorous and penetrating... and one of the most widely researched, in its coverage of texts, theory, and historical developments." -- London Review of Books
Review
―Arts and Letters
One of the most rigorous and penetrating books I have read―and one of the most widely researched in its coverage of texts, theory, and historical developments.
―London Review of Books
A powerful and solid work that will dominate discussion of its subject for a long time to come.
―Christopher Hill, New York Review of Books
This book is a formidable attempt to articulate issues of almost imponderable centrality for modern life and literature. McKeon proposes with quite breathtaking ambition and considerable intellectual flourish to redefine the novel's key role in those immense cultural transformations that produce the modern world.
―Studies in the Novel
Review
"This book is a formidable attempt to articulate issues of almost imponderable centrality for modern life and literature. McKeon proposes with quite breathtaking ambition and considerable intellectual flourish to redefine the novel's key role in those immense cultural transformations that produce the modern world."
"A powerful and solid work that will dominate discussion of its subject for a long time to come."
-- Christopher Hill ― New York Review of Books"A magisterial work of history and analysis."
"One of the most rigorous and penetrating books I have read—and one of the most widely researched in its coverage of texts, theory, and historical developments."
From the Publisher
"One of the most rigorous and penetrating books I have readand one of the most widely researched, in its coverage of texts, theory, and historical developments."Vincent Newey, London Review of Books
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B07DFNGJ4W
- Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press; 15th Anniversary Edition, with a New Introduction by the Author (May 13, 2003)
- Publication date : May 13, 2003
- Language : English
- File size : 2888 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 562 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,805 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Watt wrote Rise of the Novel in the 1950's and his study is particularly notable for the unique way he grounds his insights on the origin & evolution of the novel in economics, social history & philosophy (namely Locke & Hobbes). Watt argues that the rise of the novel coincides with the rise of the middle class & that what makes the novel unique among literary forms is its valorization of individualism & realism. What is attractive about the study is that it offers a nice definition of the novel and an assessment of its historical impact, but what is not so satisfying is that the defintion doesn't really work with two of the three authors that Watt has selected for study. Still, it's such a neat formulation that it retained its status as the canonical account of the novels origin for some thirty years (or until McKeon published Origin of the Novel in 1987).
Watt argues that the novel came about as a result of a confluence of social, economic, & philosophic factors that resulted in a devaluing of classical idealism and a valuing of a new more realistic, pragmatic understanding of life and human behavior; McKeon argues that the novel came about as a result of epistemological & social uncertainty (or what McKeon aptly calls "status instability"). One can see that these two theses do not necessarily work against each other.
Both Watt & McKeon recognize and legitimize Max Weber's work on the adaptability of protestantism to capitalist (& secular) modes of discourse, production, and value. And both see the novel as a mode of discourse that renders the contradictions between these two discourses visible. But McKeon parts ways with Watt when it comes to seeing the novel as an inherently "realistic" mode of discourse engaged in an empirically observable and representable "history" (McKeon calls this "naive empiricism"). And he parts ways with Watt when it comes to seeing the ascendant epistemologies & ideologies & modes of discourse (that Watt associates with the middle class) as any less problematic than the descendant ones (that Watt associates with the aristocracy). In fact he doesn't see them as ascendant or descendant at all, rather he sees the two competing discourses as existing in a dialectical realtionship.
In its attention to historical detail & individual personality, Watt sees the novel as a powerful tool for demystifying & destabilizing aristocratic rhetorical modes (ie the romance) which he suggests were not about specific times, places, & individuals located in and responsive to historical contingencies but about ahistorical times, places, & types.
McKeon is not so quick to see the emergent novel as signaling middle class ascendancy. Rather, McKeon sees the novel as a response to an epistemological crisis that destabilizes all identities, knowledge practices, & representational strategies. The novel is born, according to McKeon, not so much to resolve a crisis but to articulate & mediate a crisis that exists between conservative & progressive ideologies.
So, while Watt sees the novel as evidence of a newly empowered class coming into its own; McKeon sees the novel as categorically unstable and evidence of an ongoing & unresolved, epistemological & social, insecurity & instabilty.
Watt's argument and his readings of Defoe, Richardson, & Fielding are very easy to follow and therefore have been embraced by a large number of academics & students; while McKeon's argument and readings of Defoe, Swift, Richardson, & Fielding, although equally compelling, are mired in what some might find to be excessive dialectical verbiage (as well as extensive discussions of dialectical methodology) which lends itself quite readily to readerly impatience & confusion (hence the deduction of one star).
I recommend Watt to the beginner (or undergraduate), and McKeon to the more advanced reader (or graduate student). Or, another way of deciding which book is best for you, is to recognize that Watt is clear & concise and historically engaged, while McKeon is deeply enmeshed in Hegelian dialectics & their marxist applications (even if you have no background in this kind of thing you will still be able to follow McKeon's readings). In sum: Watt is a classic old school scholar (who happens to be a marxist), and McKeon is a dyed-in-the-wool poststructuralist (who also happens to be a marxist).
Neither are considered to be the last word, but both are considered to be indispensable interventions in the ongoing argument over the origin & evolution of the novel.