This project traces the emergence of the spy in the literature of the eighteenth century, arguing for spying's ideological transition within the cultural and literary imagination from a profession to a way of being. At stake in \"The Secret History of the English Spy: 1674-1800\" is the idea that surveillance, spying, and state secrecy inform and meaningfully intersect with eighteenth century narrative fiction. Through analysis of a variety of surveillance fictions, including spy narratives, financial tell-alls, periodicals, amatory secret histories, and domestic and Gothic fictions, I incorporate the idea of surveillance into eighteenth-century literary history in order to more thoroughly understand how the genre speaks back to eighteenth-century conceptions of gender, class, and selfhood.
","abstract_html":"<p>This project traces the emergence of the spy in the literature of the eighteenth century, arguing for spying's ideological transition within the cultural and literary imagination from a profession to a way of being. At stake in "The Secret History of the English Spy: 1674-1800" is the idea that surveillance, spying, and state secrecy inform and meaningfully intersect with eighteenth century narrative fiction. Through analysis of a variety of surveillance fictions, including spy narratives, financial tell-alls, periodicals, amatory secret histories, and domestic and Gothic fictions, I incorporate the idea of surveillance into eighteenth-century literary history in order to more thoroughly understand how the genre speaks back to eighteenth-century conceptions of gender, class, and selfhood.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ross, Slaney Chadwick"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Comparative Literature","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Manushag N Powell","Nicole J Horejsi","Geraldine S Friedman","Christopher Lukasik"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:54:44Z","subjects":["eighteenth-century British literature","intelligence","secret histories","spies","surveillance"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1494","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Manushag N Powell","Nicole J Horejsi","Geraldine S Friedman","Christopher Lukasik"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ross, Slaney Chadwick"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Comparative Literature"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["eighteenth-century British literature","intelligence","secret histories","spies","surveillance"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1494"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This project traces the emergence of the spy in the literature of the eighteenth century, arguing for spying's ideological transition within the cultural and literary imagination from a profession to a way of being. At stake in \"The Secret History of the English Spy: 1674-1800\" is the idea that surveillance, spying, and state secrecy inform and meaningfully intersect with eighteenth century narrative fiction. Through analysis of a variety of surveillance fictions, including spy narratives, financial tell-alls, periodicals, amatory secret histories, and domestic and Gothic fictions, I incorporate the idea of surveillance into eighteenth-century literary history in order to more thoroughly understand how the genre speaks back to eighteenth-century conceptions of gender, class, and selfhood.
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