Michael Demson and Regina Hewitt (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474428569
- eISBN:
- 9781474465007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474428569.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Two hundred years after the massacre of peaceful protestors who had gathered in St Peter's Field, Manchester, to hear 'Orator' Henry Hunt speak for Parliamentary Reform, this volume brings together ...
More
Two hundred years after the massacre of peaceful protestors who had gathered in St Peter's Field, Manchester, to hear 'Orator' Henry Hunt speak for Parliamentary Reform, this volume brings together scholars of the Romantic Era to assess the implications of such state violence in England, Scotland, Ireland and North America. Chapters explore how attitudes toward violence and the claims of 'the people' to participate in government were reflected and revised in the works of figures such as P. B. Shelley, John Keats, Walter Scott, Sydney Owenson, John Cahuac and J.M.W. Turner. Their analyses provide fresh insights into cultural engagement as a means of resisting oppression and as a sign of the resilience of humanity in facing threats and force. On the whole, the book advances the hypothesis that 'Peterloo', as the event was termed to evoke the British military victory at Waterloo, was most of all a conflict over the perceived and aspirational identities of the participants and observers and that the conflict manifested the identity of 'the people' as claimants on government. Recognizing popular claim-making was crucial for the passage of Reform. Though Peterloo resulted in an immediate backlash of repression, it contributed in the longer term to the change in attitude enabling Reform. The book concludes that state violence ultimately proved ineffective against popular participation, though it also uncovers the ways in which repressive measures function as a subtle and hidden kind of violence that discourages civic activism and continues to call forth cultural resistance.Less
Two hundred years after the massacre of peaceful protestors who had gathered in St Peter's Field, Manchester, to hear 'Orator' Henry Hunt speak for Parliamentary Reform, this volume brings together scholars of the Romantic Era to assess the implications of such state violence in England, Scotland, Ireland and North America. Chapters explore how attitudes toward violence and the claims of 'the people' to participate in government were reflected and revised in the works of figures such as P. B. Shelley, John Keats, Walter Scott, Sydney Owenson, John Cahuac and J.M.W. Turner. Their analyses provide fresh insights into cultural engagement as a means of resisting oppression and as a sign of the resilience of humanity in facing threats and force. On the whole, the book advances the hypothesis that 'Peterloo', as the event was termed to evoke the British military victory at Waterloo, was most of all a conflict over the perceived and aspirational identities of the participants and observers and that the conflict manifested the identity of 'the people' as claimants on government. Recognizing popular claim-making was crucial for the passage of Reform. Though Peterloo resulted in an immediate backlash of repression, it contributed in the longer term to the change in attitude enabling Reform. The book concludes that state violence ultimately proved ineffective against popular participation, though it also uncovers the ways in which repressive measures function as a subtle and hidden kind of violence that discourages civic activism and continues to call forth cultural resistance.
Michael Demson and Regina Hewitt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474428569
- eISBN:
- 9781474465007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474428569.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This Introduction provides an overview of the events that came to be known as the 'Peterloo Massacre' and of assessments that try to account for the violent reaction it received. Drawing on theories ...
More
This Introduction provides an overview of the events that came to be known as the 'Peterloo Massacre' and of assessments that try to account for the violent reaction it received. Drawing on theories by Chandler, Tilly, Butler, Žižek and Nixon, it categorizes the attitudes toward physical force and toward the claims of 'the people' on government evident in the historical record into narratives of 'diminishing' and 'dispersing' violence. Looking at how these narratives were developed in Romantic-era literature, it offers a new interpretation of the conflict in St Peter's Field as indicative of a change in attitudes toward violence as a 'normal' occurrence. It finds that a decreasing pattern of direct confrontation facilitated the Parliamentary Reform that Peterloo protesters sought while a pattern of subtle repression limited the extent to which popular claim-making would be heard.Less
This Introduction provides an overview of the events that came to be known as the 'Peterloo Massacre' and of assessments that try to account for the violent reaction it received. Drawing on theories by Chandler, Tilly, Butler, Žižek and Nixon, it categorizes the attitudes toward physical force and toward the claims of 'the people' on government evident in the historical record into narratives of 'diminishing' and 'dispersing' violence. Looking at how these narratives were developed in Romantic-era literature, it offers a new interpretation of the conflict in St Peter's Field as indicative of a change in attitudes toward violence as a 'normal' occurrence. It finds that a decreasing pattern of direct confrontation facilitated the Parliamentary Reform that Peterloo protesters sought while a pattern of subtle repression limited the extent to which popular claim-making would be heard.
