Carlyle and the economics of terror [[electronic resource] ] : a study of revisionary gothicism in The French Revolution / / Mary Desaulniers

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910782718603321
• Autore: Desaulniers Mary <1950->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Montreal ; ; Buffalo, : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1995
• ISBN: 1-282-85729-0; 9786612857294; 0-7735-6520-5
• Descrizione fisica: x, 140 p. ; ; 24 cm
• Disciplina: 824/.8
• Soggetti: English literature; France History Reign of Terror, 1793-1794 Historiography; France History Revolution, 1789-1799 Historiography
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Includes index.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front Matter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Carlyle and the Economy of the Body/Text -- Carlyle and the Economics of Terror -- Faustian Analogues -- Economics and Economy in The French Revolution -- Economics and Economy in the King's Glorious Body -- Afterword: Bordello and the Economics of Representation -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Using Aristotle's oikonomia to establish a paradigm of wholeness and authentic engagement, Desaulniers argues that Carlyle returns language to material wholeness by insisting on situating sign within representation so that the materiality of the sign is not surrendered to the idea imposed on it. By focusing on reading as an act of Constitution within The French Revolution, she places the political crisis within a linguistic one: the Constitution becomes both a thematic and self-reflexive constituent of the linguistic process. Desaulniers concentrates on Carlyle's use of Gothic conventions, drawing upon Goethe's Faust and the Gothic romances of Maturin and Lewis. Establishing The French Revolution as a precursor to Browning's Sordello, she illustrates that the "economics" of representation remains a pivotal nineteenth-century linguistic strategy.