The Rhetoric of Illusion: Persuasion and Response in Forgery, the Arts and Other Deceptions (1600-1750)

Author(s):
Hylkema, J.J. (0000-0002-9343-2894)
Published
2019
Publication type
Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

This dissertation consists

of five articles and focuses on five cases of deception, all presented and

exposed in early modern London: The Originall of Idolatries (1624), Alexander

Bendo’s mountebank handbill (1676), George Psalmanazar’s An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704), the case of Mary Toft (1726) and the Great Bottle Hoax (1749). These are all examples of creative forgery, fakes without a prototype, that were created to be woven into the fabric of reality. The articles discuss the cases’ dynamics of persuasion and response within their respective cultural contexts but they also explore the wider implications of the five cases and what they can tell us about the perception and role of forgery in early modern culture. Why did early modern illusionist artists and playwrights explicitly compare their work to this kind of deception? How did forgery contribute to the development of the distinction between fiction and scholarship? And what can discussions of newly exposed forgeries tell us about the cultural negotiation of the concepts of reality, authenticity and originality in early modern England?

Forgery studiesEarly modern fakeryEarly modern illusionist art
Defense date
2019-06-20
Language
English
Supervisor(s)
Bussels, S.P.M.; Eck, C.A. van
Committee member(s)
Wessels, A.B.; Griener, P.; Keazor, H.; Lynch, J.; Smith, P.J.
Qualification
Ph.D.
Degree granting institution
Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, Leiden
hdl
1887/74295