What is the pre-Lear, pre-Carroll history of nonsense literature? On the one hand, it's surprising it arises, qua genre, so late. On the other hand, not surprising, as it is so clearly continuous with prior art: jokes, folk songs, courtly wit, travesties, parodies, etc.
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This is a good guess. It seems also to involve a (mild) protest against Victorian moralism. It isn't - like later surrealist or absurdist works - protest literature. It's as though it wants to carve an innocently private amoral (but not immoral) zone.
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I wonder if Tristram Shandy isn't a pre-Victorian precursor, as well as Swift's occasional forays into absurdity.
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