Daniel Defoe And The Rise Of The Public Sphere In Eighteenth-Century Britain

Daniel Defoe,a prominent English writer in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century,enjoys a high reputation as the ―Father of the English Novel‖ and the―Father of the English Newspaper‖.Defoe rose to prominence at a time when Britain was transitioning from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial powerhouse.Thus,his works constitute an important historical source for the study of early modern English history.Defoe‘s life journey was rough,but he was versatile.He had engaged himself as a businessman,a journalist,a government-hired pen and a spy.Furthermore,he started writing novels while continuing to edit journal articles at the age of 59.Jürgen Habermas has asserted that Defoe was the first author that made the ―Party Spirit‖ a―Public Spirit‖.Defoe‘s journalistic and literary writings best reflect the influence of literary figures as well as their works on the rise of the public sphere in early eighteenth century Britain.Defoe was living in such a tumultuous era,events such as the restoration of the Stuart Royal Family,the Glorious Revolution,the two wars of succession,the Financial Revolution and the fast development of social economy brought both confidence and anxiety to British society.Defoe‘s writing is a mirror of his time,which reflects the historical background from which the bourgeois public sphere arose.The extension of the middling sort that came as a result of these significant social and political changes was a significant structural change in British society.Consequently,it promoted cultural consumption to a new degree.When the Licensing Act was abolished in 1695,it led to a boom in journalism,the expansion of the reading public and the popularization of public places such as coffee houses.These all greatly contributed to the birth of the bourgeois public sphere.Defoe‘s influence on the public sphere is represented first by his journalistic writing.His transition from a freelancer to a government-hired writer was the result of the fierce party conflicts in this era.To win the election campaigns,the Tories and the Whigs both resorted to newspapers and magazines in the literary public sphere for propaganda.The prosperity of the news media prompted government to reform its press policy.Queen Anne‘s prime ministers including Robert Harley began to manipulate propaganda and control public opinion by secretly subsidizing certain journals such as Defoe‘s Review.Targeting readers of the middling-sort,Review became both a tool of government propaganda and the space for Defoe to discuss social problems with his readers.Review‘s news reports awakened the public‘s rational and critical awareness.Meanwhile,Defoe‘s moral instruction helped to answer the moral questions and spread a new framework of economic ethics to these readers.The public of the late Stuart society had fervent political debates on the following controversial events: the Standing Army Issue,the Great Union,the Occasional Conformity Bill and the Utrecht Treaty.During four major social debates,Defoe acted as a competent polemical writer and published a large number of reports and pamphlets on these issues.These writings represented the aspirations and appeals from the rising bourgeois class that Defoe was representing.They were eager to play a part in political administration and press control.Furthermore,they also proposed religious toleration as a way to stabilize society and urged socio-economic changes to improve capitalism.The debates above reflected the process of conflicts and compromises between traditional and modern ideology.The press articles and pamphlets helped spreading the news,and thus the critical rationalism of the public was reinforced and an early form of the political public sphere appeared as a consequence.Defoe‘s novels were a new genre in his lifetime,but it played a significant role in the transition from the literary public sphere to the political public sphere.Defoe‘s journalistic career contributed a lot to his realistic novel writings.Apart from appealing to the taste of contemporary readers,his novels aimed to work as a new media to highlight the major issues of the day,such as colonialism and economic individualism,and to enlighten the readers about the capitalist spirit.―Defoe‘s China‖ is discussed as a typical example of a transition from the literary public sphere to the political public sphere.By deliberately constructing China negatively as ―other image‖,Defoe‘s real aim is to influence social ideology and boost the patriotism by praising commercial civilization of Britain.In conclusion,Defoe made a considerable contribution to the rise of the public sphere in eighteenth century Britain.He played an important role in journalism,public debates and novel writing.His Journal Review was not only a tool for government propaganda to sidestep party extremism,but also an effective tool to inform and enlighten the readers.Defoe participated energetically on behalf of the rising bourgeoisie in four public debates.He concentrated on topics such as the British trade profit,the legal right of the dissenters and the protestant right of succession.Defoe‘s novel constituted a new channel to conduct moral instruction and to promote the capitalist spirit.Defoe‘s writing,and the rise of the bourgeois public sphere facilitated the enlightenment movement,and the transition of social ideology.This was a form of spiritual preparation that underpinned the Industrial revolution.