'I shall not concern the Union in this Discourse' : Prétérition et engagement dans l’écriture pro-unioniste de Daniel Defoe, voyageur en Écosse

This essay explores the singular political commitment and rhetoric of Daniel Defoe in his writings related to the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England in 1706. Several genres are analyzed in this essay but the stress is laid more particularly on a poem, Caledonia (1706) and a travel narrative dealing with the economic situation of Great Britain published between 1724 and 1726, the Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain. Defoe’s position as a secret spy for the government cannot but give a particular color to his literary output, and despite his strong commitment to the cause of the Union, he had to use a “cautious rhetoric” and to play a sort of hide-and-seek game with his readers. Preterition and exaggerated neutrality contrast with a very straightforward style because of the particular position Defoe found himself in, being at the same time an observer of and a participant in the events he was writing about.