Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-EpicPenn State Press, 1. sept 1992 - 256 pages Designs on Truth provides a reinterpretation of Augustan poetry, not as works to be defended before the court of Matthew Arnold and the Romantic tradition but as works that examine the rich relationships among text, culture, and world. In Designs on Truth, Gregory Colomb identifies the characteristics of the mock-epic and argues that the form had developed formal expectations. In making this argument, he explains the intentions of the writers of mock-epics, and expands our conception of the interest and significance of such poems. By demonstrating how these poems are supported by the genre's poetics, he brings out ways these poems differ from other &"Augustan&" poems such as the Horatian epistles that are often discussed with them. Designs on Truth puts into question the distinction between history and poetry in the mock-epic, examining it at three levels of poetic structure: fable (global narrative structure), and portraits (characterological narrative structure). Focusing chiefly on the mock-epic's representations in terms of class and &"kind,&" this study returns historical particulars to the central role that the poets had always given them and seeks to understand how they are made poetic. Designs on Truth shows how the poems themselves subvert any easy distinction between historical and poetic particulars. This often philosophical genre is itself a reconsideration of the role of reference (fact) and judgment (value) in representation. This study shows how representation and judgment work in the mock-epic, and how together they stand at the heart of the dominant Augustan poetic. Colomb also provides new readings of the mock-epic, including the first comprehensive reading of The Dispensary since the eighteenth century. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 66
... Names 3 " Dullness by Its Proper Name " 4 Urban Gravitation 33 35 59 79 5 Ranging Afield 95 Part II : The Figure in the Portrait Prologue 119 6 From Caricature to Portraiture 129 7 " Dishonourable Confederacies " 145 8 A Taxonomy of ...
... ' Curll , of Benson ' propt ' on Milton's name , and of Opera ' up- held by singing peers are all actually iconographkr portraits " ( 77 ) . most scope for long Descriptions . " In that catchall Introduction : Moralizing the Song 3.
... names of the gods and heroes are nothing else but the affections of the mind in a visible shape and character " ( Spectator 183 ) . Although there was disagreement about details , almost everyone ac- cepted a version of Le Bossu's ...
... [ T ] hose Poetical Persons , to which Particular names are assign'd , remain at the bottom Universal and Allegorical " ( 1.58 ) . truth he wrapp'd in an Allegory ( as the constitution Introduction : Moralizing the Song 7.
... name to be Tibbald , and he becomes of course the Hero of the poem .... As for the characters , the publick hath already acknowledged how justly they are drawn : the manners are so depicted , and the sentiments so peculiar to those to ...
Contents
Prologue | 33 |
Naming Names | 35 |
Dullness by Its Proper Name 3 | 59 |
Urban Gravitation | 79 |
Ranging Afield | 95 |
Prologue | 119 |
From Caricature to Portraiture 6 | 129 |
Dishonourable Confederacies | 145 |
A Taxonomy of Dunces 8 | 163 |
A Succession of Monarchs 9 | 183 |
Epilogue | 207 |
209 | |
219 | |