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Mock-heroic poetry is one of the most characteristic genres of English neoclassicism in the eighteenth century. Derived from French models, the mock-heroic became something more than merely a parody of the serious epic: relieved of its gravity, it was nevertheless a legitimate and independent form of epic poetry. This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre. In the first part, Ulrich Broich shows how mock-heroic poetry combines the characteristics of various discourses - epic, comedy, parody, satire and occasional poetry. The 'polyphonic' genre which emerges from this analysis stands in ironic contrast to the neoclassical ideal of decorum in a harmonious unity of discourse and form. The second part traces the history of mock-heroic poetry: its foreign sources, its beginnings in England, the 'rivalry' with other forms of comic narrative, and its decline in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Mock-heroic poetry is one of the most characteristic genres of English neoclassicism in the eighteenth century. Derived from French models, the mock-heroic became something more than merely a parody of the serious epic: relieved of its gravity, it was nevertheless a legitimate and independent form of epic poetry. This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre. In the first part, Ulrich Broich shows how mock-heroic poetry combines the characteristics of various discourses - epic, comedy, parody, satire and occasional poetry. The 'polyphonic' genre which emerges from this analysis stands in ironic contrast to the neoclassical ideal of decorum in a harmonious unity of discourse and form. The second part traces the history of mock-heroic poetry: its foreign sources, its beginnings in England, the 'rivalry' with other forms of comic narrative, and its decline in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Foreword; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Conventions of the Mock-Heroic Poem: 1. The presentation of contemporary reality; 2. The disguise and suspension of reality; 3. Imitation and parody of the epic; 4. The mock-heroic poem as satire; Part II. The History of the Mock-Heroic Poem: 5. Different types of mock-heroic poem and their pre-neoclassical models; 6. Boileau's Le Lutrin and the first phase of the genre's development in England (c. 1681 – c. 1712); 7. Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712–14); 8. The Rape of the Lock and the heroi-comical poem (second phase, c. 1714 – c. 1742); 9. Pope's Dunciad (1728–43); 10. The decline and fall of the mock-heroic poem (third phase, c. 1742 – c. 1800); Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index of authors and titles.
This book is the first comprehensive study of the theory, the conventions and the history of the mock-heroic genre.
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