Visions of Britain, 1730-1830 — Anglo-Scottish Writing and Representation

Visions of Britain is an inquiry into the nature of the literary and visual representation of the United Kingdom in the century shortly after the formation of the British State in 1707. The book considers the inter-relationship of text and image for the purposes of national projection in the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. It analyses an extensive range of poems, novels, journals, drawings, satirical prints, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings. The study follows recent discussions of Anglo-Scottish representation in this period in the attempt to determine the salient characteristics of the depiction of Britain, but challenges their more confident claims for the development of progressive integrated nationhood. It suggests instead that some of the most illuminating literary and visual accounts of the United Kingdom in this era subject their projections to sustained artistic pressure, threatening to dismantle the national vision at the moment of its construction.

Sebastian Mitchell is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Birmingham, UK.