The rhetoric of reform : Edward Bulwer and aristocratic representation in the social order
The rhetoric of reform : Edward Bulwer and aristocratic representation in the social order
Extensive reading of the evidence central to the following argument - patrician writings of the 1820s and 30s - has suggested some revisions to an inheritance of assumptions about aristocracy and the aristocratic ideal in the sustaining of industrial society. In referring to both an aristocracy and an aristocratic ideal, it is not assumed that the one requires the other: indeed much of the case is concerned with the need to separate them. It is necessary to distinguish between a culture marking a class of proprietors from whom land is held by others, and cultural allusion which refers to aristocracy in order to express a variety of relations not especially concerned with land-owning. These could include relations of unity and plurality, accumulation and consumption, centre and periphery, individualism and collectivity. Such symbolic allusion might be found in aristocratic culture itself, but it will also be found in non-agrarian cultures and as an organizing principle in an industrial society as a whole. In the period of reform, a vigorous patrician clerisy typified by Edward Bulwer can be detected, which both exemplifies a specific system of values facilitating reform under aristocratic leadership, but which also contributes to diffused and familiar aristocratic ideals. It is seen as the literary dimension to an aristocratic order in an industrial world, as consonant with capitalist land ownership, and as having categories such as honour, estate, people and nation with a resonance, not only in spatial but also in temporal aspects, different both from what preceded and what followed it: they take on some qualities of a narrative. The purpose of the research was to recover this now vestigial culture, to explain its limitations and their consequence, and to indicate its influence. The need is implied for a less literal interpretation of social consciousness than is usual, with an affirmation of the significance and complexities of cultural symbolism in the definition of class and of other social groups.
University of Southampton
1989
Oakley, John Whitburn
(1989)
The rhetoric of reform : Edward Bulwer and aristocratic representation in the social order.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Extensive reading of the evidence central to the following argument - patrician writings of the 1820s and 30s - has suggested some revisions to an inheritance of assumptions about aristocracy and the aristocratic ideal in the sustaining of industrial society. In referring to both an aristocracy and an aristocratic ideal, it is not assumed that the one requires the other: indeed much of the case is concerned with the need to separate them. It is necessary to distinguish between a culture marking a class of proprietors from whom land is held by others, and cultural allusion which refers to aristocracy in order to express a variety of relations not especially concerned with land-owning. These could include relations of unity and plurality, accumulation and consumption, centre and periphery, individualism and collectivity. Such symbolic allusion might be found in aristocratic culture itself, but it will also be found in non-agrarian cultures and as an organizing principle in an industrial society as a whole. In the period of reform, a vigorous patrician clerisy typified by Edward Bulwer can be detected, which both exemplifies a specific system of values facilitating reform under aristocratic leadership, but which also contributes to diffused and familiar aristocratic ideals. It is seen as the literary dimension to an aristocratic order in an industrial world, as consonant with capitalist land ownership, and as having categories such as honour, estate, people and nation with a resonance, not only in spatial but also in temporal aspects, different both from what preceded and what followed it: they take on some qualities of a narrative. The purpose of the research was to recover this now vestigial culture, to explain its limitations and their consequence, and to indicate its influence. The need is implied for a less literal interpretation of social consciousness than is usual, with an affirmation of the significance and complexities of cultural symbolism in the definition of class and of other social groups.
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Published date: 1989
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Local EPrints ID: 461717
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/461717
PURE UUID: 49558d66-4bf7-45f7-86c9-b4cf9260e7ec
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:52
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 18:52
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Author:
John Whitburn Oakley
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