An appetite for ambivalence: Pope studies in the twenty‐first century

Abstract

This article provides an overview of scholarship on Alexander Pope since the turn of the millennium, concentrating on the theme of his ambivalence as it manifests in a range of contexts. The author examines Pope's approaches to philosophy, poetics, and politics, and his overarching concern with the concepts of private and public life. The article argues that focusing on Pope's capacity for ambivalence and equivocation as a poet has proven far from a critical dead end and that there is still the promise of much intellectual excitement in this area of study.