From Fleece to Fleets; or, Wool and the Production of Wonder.

The commodity of wool occupies a central place in the English imaginary of the eighteenth century, which is evident in the writings of Daniel Defoe, John Smith, and John Dyer. Dyer's four-book poem The Fleece (1757) employs a georgic narrative to trace the movement of fleece from organic sub stance...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Eighteenth Century Fiction Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 101 - 122
Main Author: Chico, Tita
Format: Literary Criticism
Published: University of Toronto Press Fall2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=138768976&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 138768976
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        08406286
        7SD
      jtl: Eighteenth Century Fiction
      issn: 08406286
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Fall2019
      vid: 32
      iid: 1
      pid: 678
      pub: University of Toronto Press
    artinfo:
      ui:
        138768976
        10.3138/ecf.32.1.101
      ppf: 101
      ppct: 21
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 115KB
      tig:
        atl: From Fleece to Fleets; or, Wool and the Production of Wonder.
      aug:
        au: Chico, Tita
      su:
        Fleece: A Poem, The (Book)
        Dyer, John, ca. 1700-1758
        Defoe, Daniel, ca. 1661-1731
        Smith, John
        Wool
      sug:
        subj:
          Fleece: A Poem, The (Book)
          Dyer, John, ca. 1700-1758
          Defoe, Daniel, ca. 1661-1731
          Smith, John
          Wool
      ab: The commodity of wool occupies a central place in the English imaginary of the eighteenth century, which is evident in the writings of Daniel Defoe, John Smith, and John Dyer. Dyer's four-book poem The Fleece (1757) employs a georgic narrative to trace the movement of fleece from organic sub stance to global commodity, using a coterminous production of wonder to turn up aesthetic possibilities that unwittingly reconfigure time and space. Drawing on Rajani Sudan's theory of "alchemical transmutation" and Adam Smith's notes on wonder, I argue that Dyer's georgic mode yields a form of appre hension unbound by temporal or spatial constraints, seeing the future in the present and the global in the local. The doubleness that inheres to Dyer's poem throughout inadvertently reveals an uneasiness, incoherence, and audacity structuring its economic and imperial triumphalism.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Literary Criticism
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Eighteenth Century Fiction is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Eighteenth Century Fiction
      holder: University of Toronto Press
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2019
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N