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What do stories of nature tell us about the social or ethical purposes of solitude? And what do stories of solitude reveal of the "character" of nonhuman nature? Dramas of Solitude brings the insights of narrative theory to bear upon the genre of nature writing, to explore the social or ethical purposes of solitude in stories of retreat in nature. Through discussions of texts by Henry D. Thoreau, John C. Van Dyke, Wendell Berry, and student writers, among other, this book complicates social views of literacy with depictions of a solitude held in dynamic relation to a not-only-human community. It will inform the efforts of literary critics and writing teachers alike who hope to reintegrate English studies upon ecological terms.

American literature --- Wilderness areas in literature. --- Solitude in literature. --- Nature in literature. --- Narration (Rhetoric) --- Self in literature. --- Literacy. --- Nature in poetry --- Illiteracy --- Education --- General education --- Narrative (Rhetoric) --- Narrative writing --- Rhetoric --- Discourse analysis, Narrative --- Narratees (Rhetoric) --- History and criticism.

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Between 1700 and 1800 English prose became more polite and less closely tied to speech. A large scale feminisation of literary and other values coincided with the development of a mature print culture; these two historical trends make themselves felt in the evolution of prose. In this book Carey McIntosh explores oral dimensions of written texts not only in writers such as Swift, Defoe and Astell, who have a strong colloquial base, but also in more bookish writers, including Shaftesbury, Johnson and Burke. After 1760, McIntosh argues, prose became more dignified and more self-consciously rhetorical. He examines the new correctness, sponsored by prescriptive grammars and Scottish rhetorics of the third quarter of the century; the new politeness, sponsored by women writers; and standardisation, which by definition encouraged precision and abstractness in language. This book offers support for a hypothesis that these are not only stylistic changes but also major events in the history of the language.

English prose literature --- Women --- Literature publishing --- Written communication --- Literacy --- English language --- Courtesy in literature. --- Written discourse --- Written language --- Communication --- Discourse analysis --- Language and languages --- Visual communication --- Literary publishing --- Literature --- Publishers and publishing --- Illiteracy --- Education --- General education --- History and criticism. --- Books and reading --- History --- Rhetoric. --- Style. --- Publishing --- Great Britain --- Intellectual life --- 19th century --- History and criticism --- 18th century --- Arts and Humanities --- Germanic languages