Spy Figure in British Radical Literature, 1790–1804
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1790s radicalism
A01=Steph Codsi
Author_Steph Codsi
Category=DSC
Category=DSG
coded language
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
satire
sincerity
Spy
surveillance theory
Product details
- ISBN 9781399529259
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 30 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The book argues that literary authors who had initially supported the ideals of the French Revolution, became more coded and elliptical in their writing as a response to surveillance and repression in Britain in the 1790s. It shows that authors appropriated the tools of invisible state surveillance by using coded modes and methods, including pseudonymity, elision, satire, irony, innuendo, allegory and self-censorship, amongst others. These strategies were often used performatively to mock the spy figure and interrogate the encroaching culture of secrecy, silencing and suspicion; but also, as a precautionary measure to protect writers from laws against sedition and treason. Applying surveillance theory, the book provides accessible and illuminating readings of literary works by William Godwin, John Thelwall, Mary Robinson, Robert Bage, and William Blake.
Stephanie Codsi is a Lecturer in English at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on the poetry of William Blake, and on radical literature of the 1790s. She is interested in the intersections between Romanticism and the Gothic, on the Revolution Controversy, and how the culture of surveillance and suspicion affected radical literature in the decade of the 1790s.
