DEBATE: THE ROASTING OF THE RUMP: SCATOLOGYAND THE BODY POLITIC IN RESTORATION ENGLAND/REPLY

Mark Jenner presented a rich and provocative reading of political symbolism in literary and ritual representations of the collapse of republican government in England. He illuminates a moment in which street carnival and scatological texts, in a variety of generic forms, came together to denigrate the degenerate 'Rump' parliament by invoking scatological insult and images of cannibalistic dismembering, and through a gendering of the failed state. Jenner argues that, although such approaches are increasingly regarded as important for understanding the extent and nature of popular politics, 'understandable aesthetic reasons' have led to the 'languages of popular and not-so-popular politics' for this period being inadequately studied and 'methodologically [un]adventurous'. McShane contends that Jenner's reading of these texts may overestimate the political impact and social depth of the historical moment he describes, and ignores perceptions of the body politic as they consistently appeared in more traditional broadside ballads of the period. A broader methodological point also emerges.