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Chapter 10 - Liberty

from Part II - Social, Cultural, and Intellectual Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  aN Invalid Date NaN

By
Nigel Wood
Edited by
Michael Griffin  and
David O'Shaughnessy
Michael Griffin
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
David O'Shaughnessy
Affiliation:
University of Galway
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Summary

This chapter shows how ‘Liberty’ gained an ideological colouring in the eighteenth century largely due to its capacity to embrace a number of artistic/political perspectives, from an opposition to the legacy of anti-Walpole sentiments derived from centralising governmental influence, to an aesthetic reversal of taste away from generic prescription to a specific association with Whiggish denial of some inherited property rights. Goldsmith is rarely regarded as a deep political thinker, yet he mixed with several who could be thought to be polemicists for Liberty. This chapter shows how his poetry (The Traveller and The Deserted Village), plays (The Good Natur’d Man and She Stoops to Conquer) and his prose (The Citizen of the World) gave voice to his interrogation of English libertarian myths.

Keywords

monarchyJohn LockeRobert Filmerhistory of EnglandThe TravellerThe Citizen of the WorldThe Vicar of Wakefield
Type
Chapter
Information
Oliver Goldsmith in Context , pp. 80 - 87
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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