Müllenbrock, Heinz-Joachim
The Culture of Contention

A Rhetorical Analysis of the Public Controversy about the Ending of the War of the Spanish Succession, 1710-1713.

The debate about the Peace of Utrecht was the first full-fledged manifestation in eighteenth-century England of an emerging public political cultures - a major cultural invention which in the long run also set an example for the rest of the world. The present monograph is the first book-length attempt at a detailed account of the public controversy about the ending of the War of the Spanish Succession from 1710 to 1713, with special emphasis on its rhetorical features. It inquires into the linguistic translation of the will to shape politics by appealing to an ever-widening audience and deals with the strategies employed by Government and Opposition in their wooing of public opinion. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of the polemical interaction in the turning-point debate between the autumn of 1711 and the spring of 1712. In its attempt to shed light on the process of how the political arena was occupied verbally, the book provides the first systematic assessment of the specific function of the various forms of political writing in the dissemination of propaganda, drawing on numerous textual examples among the whole gamut of genres participating in the public debate. Particular attention is further paid to the language of politics with special reference to the antagonism between Whigs and Tories. This thoroughly researched interdisciplinary study is of great interest to historians and literary historians alike and provides fresh insights into the sophisticated interaction of print and politics so brilliantly inaugurated in the reign of Queen Anne and characteristic of modern public life right up to our times. 219 Seiten mit 6 Abb., gebunden (Monographs on Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Culture/Wilhelm Fink Verlag 1997) Mängelexemplarstempel auf Schnitt, Einband leicht berieben/defect copy stamp on cut, slightly rubbed