Commemorating Peterloo
Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era
Published on 1. May 2019
Book
Hardback
312 pages
978-1-4744-2856-9 (ISBN)
Description
Reflections on the Bicentenary of the 1819 Massacre of Reformers in Manchester
Two hundred years after the massacre of protestors in Manchester, known as Peterloo, distinguished scholars of Romantic-era literature join together in this commemorative volume to assess the implications of the violence. Contributors explore how attitudes toward violence and the claims of people to participate in government were reflected and revised in the verbal and visual culture of the time. Their analyses provide fresh insights into cultural engagement as a means of resisting oppression and a sign of the resilience of humanity in facing threats and force.
Key Features
Provides a multi-perspectival, historical revaluation of the violence of Peterloo Draws on contemporary theorizations of violence by Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek and Rob Nixon to account for the cultural factors leading to PeterlooSupplements treatments of Peterloo centering on English history with attention to the significance of that event from Scottish, Irish and North American perspectives
Two hundred years after the massacre of protestors in Manchester, known as Peterloo, distinguished scholars of Romantic-era literature join together in this commemorative volume to assess the implications of the violence. Contributors explore how attitudes toward violence and the claims of people to participate in government were reflected and revised in the verbal and visual culture of the time. Their analyses provide fresh insights into cultural engagement as a means of resisting oppression and a sign of the resilience of humanity in facing threats and force.
Key Features
Provides a multi-perspectival, historical revaluation of the violence of Peterloo Draws on contemporary theorizations of violence by Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek and Rob Nixon to account for the cultural factors leading to PeterlooSupplements treatments of Peterloo centering on English history with attention to the significance of that event from Scottish, Irish and North American perspectives
Reviews / Votes
This timely gathering of excellent scholars refreshes and deepens our understanding of "Peterloo." Reading it as now providing an argument for non-violent popular action and now revealing dispersed state violence, the collection broadens our approach to Peterloo to responses in painting, poetry and plays and to reactions from Ireland, Scotland and America. * Jeffrey N. Cox, University of Colorado Boulder *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
15 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-2856-9 (9781474428569)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Michael Demson is Professor of English at Sam Houston State University. He coedited, with Christopher Clason, Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms (2020) and, with Regina Hewitt, Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era (2019). He has published articles in European Romantic Review, Romanticism, Romantic Circles, The Keats-Shelley Journal, The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, among others. His graphic novel, Masks of Anarchy: From Percy Shelley to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, was published in 2013. Regina Hewitt is Professor of English at the University of South Florida. Her most recent publications include Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-Making during the Romantic Era, co-edited with Michael Demson (2019), and an edition of Lawrie Todd for the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of John Galt (2023). Formerly Co-Editor of the European Romantic Review, she now serves as a Consulting Editor for that journal.
Content
IllustrationsAcknowledgements ContributorsIntroduction, Michael Demson and Regina Hewitt
1. Peterloo, Ambivalence, and Commemorative Culture, Stephen C. Behrendt
2. The Sounds of Peterloo, Ian Haywood
3. Henry Hunt's White Hat: The Long Tradition of Mute Sedition, Murray Pittock
4. Staging Protest and Repression: Guy Fawkes in Post-Peterloo Performance, Frederick Burwick
5. Responses to Peterloo in Scotland, 1819-1822, Gerard Carruthers
6. 'The Most Portentous Event in Modern History': Ireland Before and After Peterloo, James Kelly
7. Political Suicide: Castlereagh, Rebellion, and Self-Directed Violence, Michelle Faubert
8. William Cobbett, 'Resurrection Man': The Peterloo Massacre and the Bones of Tom Paine, Katey Castellano
9. The Church and Peterloo, John Gardner
10. 'Reform or Convulsion': Jeremy Bentham and the Peterloo Massacre, Victoria Myers
11. Wordsworth After Peterloo: The Persistence of War in The River Duddon . . . and other Poems, Philip Shaw
12. Shelley's Poetry and Suffering, Michael Scrivener
Index
1. Peterloo, Ambivalence, and Commemorative Culture, Stephen C. Behrendt
2. The Sounds of Peterloo, Ian Haywood
3. Henry Hunt's White Hat: The Long Tradition of Mute Sedition, Murray Pittock
4. Staging Protest and Repression: Guy Fawkes in Post-Peterloo Performance, Frederick Burwick
5. Responses to Peterloo in Scotland, 1819-1822, Gerard Carruthers
6. 'The Most Portentous Event in Modern History': Ireland Before and After Peterloo, James Kelly
7. Political Suicide: Castlereagh, Rebellion, and Self-Directed Violence, Michelle Faubert
8. William Cobbett, 'Resurrection Man': The Peterloo Massacre and the Bones of Tom Paine, Katey Castellano
9. The Church and Peterloo, John Gardner
10. 'Reform or Convulsion': Jeremy Bentham and the Peterloo Massacre, Victoria Myers
11. Wordsworth After Peterloo: The Persistence of War in The River Duddon . . . and other Poems, Philip Shaw
12. Shelley's Poetry and Suffering, Michael Scrivener
Index