Dialogue, Didacticism and the Genres of Dispute

'provides a close account of the ups and downs of the dialogue as writers fit it to a popular audience.' European Romantic Review 'Wallbank's study offers an important addition to Romanticism criticism. It will enrich our understanding of the cultural landscape of the period through its careful attention to the textual and political nuances of a genre whose important role has too often been overlooked.' Paul Keen, Carleton University

• Introduction: Theory and Practice; Chapter 1 Loyalist and Radical Dialogues of the Revolution Controversy: The ‘Ambiguities’ of ‘Popular Address’; Chapter 2 ‘I am Like that House or Kingdom Divided Against Itself, of Which I have Read Somewhere in the Holy Scriptures’: Psychological Disunity, Mentoring from the Heart, and Literary Innovation: Evangelical Dialogues, 1795–1801; Chapter 3 Religious ‘Enthusiasm’ and ‘Practical’ Mentoring: Dialogic Responses to the Blagdon Controversy; Chapter 4 Education and Philosophical Persuasion: The Dialogues of Dr Alexander Thomson and Sir Uvedale Price; Chapter 5 ‘Interrogative’ Philosophizing and the Ambiguities of Egalitarian Dialogues: Sir Richard Phillips’s Four Dialogues Between an Oxford Tutor and a Disciple of the Common-Sense Philosophy (1824) and Robert Southey’s Sir Thomas More: Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829); Chapter 6 Conversation and ‘Enlightened Philosophy’: The ‘Dialectical Comedies’ of Thomas Love Peacock and Imaginary Conversations (1824–9) of Walter Savage Landor;