Harley, Political Narratives, and Deceit in Defoe's Secret History of the Secret History of the White Staff
International audience ; This publication analyses Daniel Defoe's role in the communication campaign surrounding Robert Harley's fall from office in 1714. Using the 'Secret History of the White-Staff' series, and the 'Secret History of the Secret History of the White-Staff' pamphlet as an anchor, this article examines Defoe's communication strategies on three different level (1) discussing the pieces' political content and impact, (2) their formal characteristics, and (3) their societal commentary on journalism and information transfer in early eighteenth-century London. Discussing these pieces' context and immediate political relevance, I focused on content analysis to shed light on the political chronology and evolution of the public messaging surrounding Harley, and the ideological shift it represented, in the first year of George I's reign and his new political administration. I also reflected on Defoe's parodic and unique contribution to the genre of secret history, drawing parallels between the formal and generic experimentations of the Tory satirists in the service of Harley between 1710-1714 and this example of a series of Whig publication in opposition, in defence of the same political figure. Unravelling the complex authorial games and embedded narrative voices at play within these texts - writing anonymously and on Harley's incentive, Defoe integrated both himself and Harley as characters within the pamphlets - this article argues for a deliberate choice of obfuscation on the propagandist's side, as both an act of protest and a political stance against what Defoe perceived as a danger to national stability and unity: the emerging commodification of information and mercantilisation of political commentary. http://digitaldefoe.org/2021/05/29/harley-political-narratives-and-deceit-in-defoes-secret-history-of-the-secret-history-of-the-white-staff/
