This book is a challenge to the arguments of the so-called ‘pornographic interpretation’ which is proposed by these historians: Robert Darnton, Lynn Hunt, and Sara Maza. They have both believed that the scandalous writings of a literary underground played a role in the collapse of the ancient regime.
Darnton argued that the attacks were produced by a group of eighteenth-cetury French exiled writers who used London as a base. He has employed the concept of the ‘Grub Street hack’ to describe the literary landscape of pre-Revolutionary French, suggesting the venomous attacks on the court created a mythology of corruption, favouritism and sexual degeneracy. This in turn results in undermining the monarchical authority and paving for the Revolution. The concern of Burrows’s work attempts to interrogate the validity of the ‘Grub Street hack’ model, and the dubious legitimacy of the ‘pornographic interpretation’ through an investigation of the material conditions under which the texts …show more content…
This is achieved through a series of narrative case studies that reveal the French government’s reaction to consecutive blackmail attempts and libelles. At the beginning, the government intimidated writers through spies and assassination threats or by paying hush money depending on estimations of the credibility of them and influence of the libelles. Writers exploited England’s relatively liberal blackmail and libel legislation to sell texts directly to government. It demonstrates that the central purpose of defamatory literature was extortion rather than politically motivated hatred. After 1783, the government stopped paying to suppress publication and adopted a policy of disregard combined with legal threats of prosecution or arrest. According to Burrows, the press coverage of these different strategies and their failures intensified fears of royal
Darnton argued that the attacks were produced by a group of eighteenth-cetury French exiled writers who used London as a base. He has employed the concept of the ‘Grub Street hack’ to describe the literary landscape of pre-Revolutionary French, suggesting the venomous attacks on the court created a mythology of corruption, favouritism and sexual degeneracy. This in turn results in undermining the monarchical authority and paving for the Revolution. The concern of Burrows’s work attempts to interrogate the validity of the ‘Grub Street hack’ model, and the dubious legitimacy of the ‘pornographic interpretation’ through an investigation of the material conditions under which the texts …show more content…
This is achieved through a series of narrative case studies that reveal the French government’s reaction to consecutive blackmail attempts and libelles. At the beginning, the government intimidated writers through spies and assassination threats or by paying hush money depending on estimations of the credibility of them and influence of the libelles. Writers exploited England’s relatively liberal blackmail and libel legislation to sell texts directly to government. It demonstrates that the central purpose of defamatory literature was extortion rather than politically motivated hatred. After 1783, the government stopped paying to suppress publication and adopted a policy of disregard combined with legal threats of prosecution or arrest. According to Burrows, the press coverage of these different strategies and their failures intensified fears of royal