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This collection explores how film and television depict the complex
and diverse milieu of the eighteenth century as a literary,
historical, and cultural space. Topics range from adaptations of
Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (The
Martian) to historical fiction on the subjects of slavery (Belle),
piracy (Crossbones and Black Sails), monarchy (The Madness of King
George and The Libertine), print culture (Blackadder and National
Treasure), and the role of women (Marie Antoinette, The Duchess,
and Outlander). This interdisciplinary collection draws from film
theory and literary theory to discuss how film and television
allows for critical re-visioning as well as revising of the
cultural concepts in literary and extra-literary writing about the
historical period.
In the eighteenth century, audiences in Great Britain understood
the term 'slavery' to refer to a range of physical and metaphysical
conditions beyond the transatlantic slave trade. Literary
representations of slavery encompassed tales of Barbary captivity,
the 'exotic' slaving practices of the Ottoman Empire, the political
enslavement practiced by government or church, and even the harsh
life of servants under a cruel master. Arguing that literary and
cultural studies have focused too narrowly on slavery as a term
that refers almost exclusively to the race-based chattel
enslavement of sub-Saharan Africans transported to the New World,
the contributors suggest that these analyses foreclose deeper
discussion of other associations of the term. They suggest that the
term slavery became a powerful rhetorical device for helping
British audiences gain a new perspective on their own position with
respect to their government and the global sphere. Far from eliding
the real and important differences between slave systems operating
in the Atlantic world, this collection is a starting point for
understanding how slavery as a concept came to encompass many forms
of unfree labor and metaphorical bondage precisely because of the
power of association.
In the eighteenth century, audiences in Great Britain understood
the term 'slavery' to refer to a range of physical and metaphysical
conditions beyond the transatlantic slave trade. Literary
representations of slavery encompassed tales of Barbary captivity,
the 'exotic' slaving practices of the Ottoman Empire, the political
enslavement practiced by government or church, and even the harsh
life of servants under a cruel master. Arguing that literary and
cultural studies have focused too narrowly on slavery as a term
that refers almost exclusively to the race-based chattel
enslavement of sub-Saharan Africans transported to the New World,
the contributors suggest that these analyses foreclose deeper
discussion of other associations of the term. They suggest that the
term slavery became a powerful rhetorical device for helping
British audiences gain a new perspective on their own position with
respect to their government and the global sphere. Far from eliding
the real and important differences between slave systems operating
in the Atlantic world, this collection is a starting point for
understanding how slavery as a concept came to encompass many forms
of unfree labor and metaphorical bondage precisely because of the
power of association.
How did the arguments developed in the debate to abolish the slave
trade help to construct a British national identity and character
in the late eighteenth century? Srividhya Swaminathan examines
books, pamphlets, and literary works to trace the changes in
rhetorical strategies utilized by both sides of the abolitionist
debate. Framing them as competing narratives engaged in defining
the nature of the Briton, Swaminathan reads the arguments of pro-
and anti-abolitionists as a series of dialogues among diverse
groups at the center and peripheries of the empire. Arguing that
neither side emerged triumphant, Swaminathan suggests that the
Briton who emerged from these debates represented a synthesis of
arguments, and that the debates to abolish the slave trade are
marked by rhetorical transformations defining the image of the
Briton as one that led naturally to nineteenth-century imperialism
and a sense of global superiority. Because the slave-trade debates
were waged openly in print rather than behind the closed doors of
Parliament, they exerted a singular influence on the British
public. At their height, between 1788 and 1793, publications
numbered in the hundreds, spanned every genre, and circulated
throughout the empire. Among the voices represented are writers
from both sides of the Atlantic in dialogue with one another, such
as key African authors like Ignatius Sancho, Phillis Wheatley, and
Olaudah Equiano; West India planters and merchants; and Quaker
activist Anthony Benezet. Throughout, Swaminathan offers fresh and
nuanced readings that eschew the view that the abolition of the
slave trade was inevitable or that the ultimate defeat of
pro-slavery advocates was absolute.
This collection explores how film and television depict the complex
and diverse milieu of the eighteenth century as a literary,
historical, and cultural space. Topics range from adaptations of
Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (The
Martian) to historical fiction on the subjects of slavery (Belle),
piracy (Crossbones and Black Sails), monarchy (The Madness of King
George and The Libertine), print culture (Blackadder and National
Treasure), and the role of women (Marie Antoinette, The Duchess,
and Outlander). This interdisciplinary collection draws from film
theory and literary theory to discuss how film and television
allows for critical re-visioning as well as revising of the
cultural concepts in literary and extra-literary writing about the
historical period.
How did the arguments developed in the debate to abolish the slave
trade help to construct a British national identity and character
in the late eighteenth century? Srividhya Swaminathan examines
books, pamphlets, and literary works to trace the changes in
rhetorical strategies utilized by both sides of the abolitionist
debate. Framing them as competing narratives engaged in defining
the nature of the Briton, Swaminathan reads the arguments of pro-
and anti-abolitionists as a series of dialogues among diverse
groups at the center and peripheries of the empire. Arguing that
neither side emerged triumphant, Swaminathan suggests that the
Briton who emerged from these debates represented a synthesis of
arguments, and that the debates to abolish the slave trade are
marked by rhetorical transformations defining the image of the
Briton as one that led naturally to nineteenth-century imperialism
and a sense of global superiority. Because the slave-trade debates
were waged openly in print rather than behind the closed doors of
Parliament, they exerted a singular influence on the British
public. At their height, between 1788 and 1793, publications
numbered in the hundreds, spanned every genre, and circulated
throughout the empire. Among the voices represented are writers
from both sides of the Atlantic in dialogue with one another, such
as key African authors like Ignatius Sancho, Phillis Wheatley, and
Olaudah Equiano; West India planters and merchants; and Quaker
activist Anthony Benezet. Throughout, Swaminathan offers fresh and
nuanced readings that eschew the view that the abolition of the
slave trade was inevitable or that the ultimate defeat of
pro-slavery advocates was absolute.
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