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
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... readers have been willing to give . Not that particulars tell the whole story of the mock - epic . The standard account of the mock - epic has emphasized its ties to the heroic tradition as perpetuated through Preface Preface.
... writing about The Dunciad , I found myself moved to utter sen- tences that were not my own , sentences grounded in beliefs I do not hold and do not much like . Puzzling about this , I noticed how many other readers had been moved to ...
... reader or two to share my interest , let that be lagniappe for both of us . Finally , like the critics of the last half century , I too hope to explain the double — or multiple — vision of the mock - epic , of the mock - form , and of ...
... readers . That correlation consti- tutes texts , and its description constitutes Poetics . ( For a general ... readers are , by and large , responsive to matters of intentionulity , of original context , of literary and social ...
... reading and detailed advice rekindled the project for me . The manuscript was also read in various stages by oth ... reader for Penn State Press . My editor , Philip Winsor , played his role to perfection , as did my copyeditor ...
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 | |