Ashley Marshall

This study rewrites literary history in the realm of eighteenth-century satire. Scholars have formed their conclusions about eighteenth-century satire on the basis of a very few (unrepresentative) works. They have emphasized uniformity and tidy evolution, describing a “type” of satire developed by Dryden, Swift, Pope, and a few others. This obliterates the amazing heterogeneity of satiric practice in this period—that which made the great age of satire so spectacular. What we are seeing is only the tip of a very grand iceberg. Reading everything, in all genres and in all decades, dramatically changes the way we understand satiric practice in these years.

Dissertation: "The Practice of Satire in England, 1650-1770"