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Author:

Alff, David, author.

Title:

The wreckage of intentions : projects in British culture, 1660-1730 / David Alff.

Publisher:

University of Pennsylvania Press,

Copyright Date:

2017

Description:

239 pages ; 24 cm.

Subject:

English literature--17th century--History and criticism.
English literature--18th century--History and criticism.
England--Civilization--17th century.
England--Civilization--18th century.
Industrial development projects--England--History--17th century.
Industrial development projects--England--History--18th century.
Scientific literature--England--History--17th century.
Scientific literature--England--History--18th century.
Civilization.
English literature.
Industrial development projects.
Scientific literature.
England.
1600-1799
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents:

Imaginary debris in Defoe's new forest. Company in paper : Aaron Hill's beech oil bust -- Projects beyond words : undertaking fen drainage -- Inheriting the future : georgic's projecting strain -- Swift's solar gourds and the antiproject tradition -- Coda Imaginary debris in Defoe's new forest.

Summary:

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain saw the proposal of so many endeavors called "projects"-a catchphrase for the daring, sometimes dangerous practice of shaping the future-that Daniel Defoe dubbed his era a "Projecting Age." These ideas spanned a wide variety of scientific, technological, and intellectual interventions intended for the betterment of England. But for all the fanfare surrounding them, few such schemes actually materialized, leaving scores of defunct visions, from Defoe's own attempt to farm cats for perfume, to Mary Astell's proposal to charter a college for women, to countless ventures for improving land, streamlining government, and inventing new consumer goods. Taken together, these failed plans form a compelling alternative history of a Britain that might have been. The Wreckage of Intentions offers a comprehensive and critical account of projects, exploring the historical memory surrounding these concrete yet incomplete efforts to advance British society during a period defined by revolutions in finance and agriculture, the rise of experimental science, and the establishment of constitutional monarchy. Using methods of literary analysis, David Alff shows how projects began as written proposals, circulated as print objects, spurred physical undertakings, and provoked responses in the realms of poetry, fiction, and drama.

Series:

Alembics: Penn studies in literature and science

ISBN:

0812249593
9780812249590

OCLC:

(OCoLC)976423893

LCCN:

2017010475

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)