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Burke, Boredom, and the Theater of Counterrevolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Anne Mallory
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Abstract

A rich critical literature explores the relation between Edmund Burke's theatrical style and his counterrevolutionary argument. Redirecting this line of inquiry, the essay treats Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) as a histrionic literary performance, arguing that to appreciate its significance we must recover a neglected subtext: a preoccupation with boredom and restlessness. Burke's loyalties are divided: defending England, he counsels against extremes of torpor and excitement. He works to preserve England in a state of settled “repose,” yet his rhetoric reveals a baseline of boredom. Indulging in fantasies of reform and utopia and deploying strategies of tragic hyperbole and self-parody, he mobilizes conventional associations of boredom and revolution to negotiate a new position from which to exercise cultural authority. Textual histrionics do more than contain a revolutionary threat; they establish an alternative theater of boredom.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 118 , Issue 2 , March 2003 , pp. 224 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2003

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