Monstrous Society - Reciprocity, Discipline, and the Political Uncanny, C. 1780-1848

Monstrous Society problematizes competing representations of reciprocity in England in the decades around 1800. It argues that in the eighteenth-century moral economy, power is divided between official authority and the counter-power of plebeians. This tacit, mutual understanding comes under attack when influential political thinkers, such as Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, and T. R. Malthus attempt to discipline the social body, to make state power immune from popular response. But once negated, counter-power persists, even if in the demands of a debased, inhuman body.

About the author

David Collings is professor of English at Bowdoin College.

Product details

• Authors: David Collings, David Collings
• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781611483154
• ISBN: 978-1-61148-315-4
• No. of pages: 332
• Dimensions: 168 mm x 243 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 608 g
• Series: Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture; Bucknell Studies 18th C L; Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture; Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Dictionaries, reference works