The battle for memory: the reception of Mary, Queen of Scots in the eighteenth-century British periodical press

Brown, R. (2024) The battle for memory: the reception of Mary, Queen of Scots in the eighteenth-century British periodical press. In: Reid, S. J. (ed.) The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 142-160. ISBN 978399523530 (In Press)

Abstract

This article analyses the varying responses to the life and contested works of Mary, Queen of Scots in the eighteenth-century British periodical press. It argues that eighteenth-century commentators, influenced by Enlightenment philosophy and the growing popularity of the literature of Sensibility which privileged human emotions, attempt to provide balanced and sympathetic portrayals of the controversies of Mary's life. In doing so, they reject the polarities of opinion they perceive in Mary's own time, and introduce new polarities of their own.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Mary, Queen of Scots, eighteenth-century British periodicals, the Marian controversy, literature of sensibility.
• Status: In Press
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brown, Professor Rhona
• Authors: Brown, R.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General); P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General); P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Scottish Literature
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• ISBN: 978399523530