Parody, Scriblerian Wit and the Rise of the Novel

lt;p>This book examines the role of parody in the English poetry and prose of the eighteenth century. It focuses on polyphony, intertextuality and deconstruction in parodic genres, in Alexander Pope's satires and John Gay's mock-pastoral poems. It examines the key role of parody in the novels by Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne.

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lt;p>Parody was a crucial technique for the satirists and novelists associated with the Scriblerus Club. The great eighteenth-century wits (Alexander Pope, John Gay, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne) often explored the limits of the ugly, the droll, the grotesque and the insane by mocking, distorting and deconstructing multiple discourses, genres, modes and methods of representation. This book traces the continuity and difference in parodic textuality from Pope to Sterne. It focuses on polyphony, intertextuality and deconstruction in parodic genres and examines the uses of parody in such texts as «The Beggar's Opera», «The Dunciad», «Joseph Andrews» and «Tristram Shandy». The book demonstrates how parody helped the modern novel to emerge as a critical and artistically self-conscious form.