England in 1819 : the politics of literary culture and the case of romantic historicism
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
England in 1819 : the politics of literary culture and the case of romantic historicism
University of Chicago Press, 1998
- : [pbk.]
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780226101088
Description
The year 1819 was the "annus mirabilis" for many British Romantic writers, and the "annus terribilis" for demonstrators protesting the state of parliamentary representation. In 1819 Keats wrote what many consider his greatest poetry. This was the year of Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound", "The Cenci", and "Ode to the West Wind." Wordsworth published his most widely reviewed work, "Peter Bell", and the craze for Walter Scott's historical novels reached its zenith. Many of these writings explicitly engaged with the politics of 1819, in particular the great movement for reform that came to a head that August with an unprovoked attack on unarmed men, women, and children in St Peter's Field, Manchester, a massacre that journalists dubbed "Peterloo". But the year of Peterloo in British history is notable for more than just the volume, value, and topicality of its literature. Writing from 1819, as the author argues, was acutely aware not only of its place in history, but also of its place "as" history - a realization of a literary "spirit of the age" that resonates strongly with the current "return to history" in literary studies.
Chandler explores the ties between Romantic and contemporary historicism, such as the shared tendency to seize a single dated event as both important on its own and as a "case" testing general principles. To animate these issues, Chandler offers a series of cases of built around key texts from 1819. Like the famous sonnet by Shelley from which it takes its name, this book simultaneously creates and critiques its own place in history. It sets out to be not only a crucial study of Romanticism, but also a major contribution to an understanding of historicism.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Preface Abbreviations Introduction: Works and Days Pt. 1: The "Historical Situation" of Romanticism Ch. 1: Specificity after Structuralism: Dating the "Return to History" Ch. 2: An Art of the State: Historicism and the Measures of Uneven Development Ch. 3: Representing Culture, Romanticizing Contradiction: The Politics of Literary Exemplarity Ch. 4: Altering the Case: The Invention of the Historical Situation Pt. 2: Reading England in 1819 Ch. 5: Reopening the Case of Scott Ch. 6: Byron's Causes: The Moral Mechanics of Don Juan Ch. 7: An "1819 Temper": Keats and the History of Psyche Ch. 8: Concerning the Influence of America on the Mind: Western Settlements, "English Writers," and the Case of U.S. Culture Ch. 9: The Case of "The Case of Shelley" Ch. 10: History's Lyre: The "West Wind" and the Poet's Work Index
- Volume
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: [pbk.] ISBN 9780226101095
Description
The year 1819 was the "annus mirabilis" for many British Romantic writers, and the "annus terribilis" for demonstrators protesting the state of parliamentary representation. In 1819 Keats wrote what many consider his greatest poetry. This was the year of Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound", "The Cenci", and "Ode to the West Wind." Wordsworth published his most widely reviewed work, "Peter Bell", and the craze for Walter Scott's historical novels reached its zenith. Many of these writings explicitly engaged with the politics of 1819, in particular the great movement for reform that came to a head that August with an unprovoked attack on unarmed men, women, and children in St Peter's Field, Manchester, a massacre that journalists dubbed "Peterloo". But the year of Peterloo in British history is notable for more than just the volume, value, and topicality of its literature. Writing from 1819, as the author argues, was acutely aware not only of its place in history, but also of its place "as" history - a realization of a literary "spirit of the age" that resonates strongly with the current "return to history" in literary studies.
Chandler explores the ties between Romantic and contemporary historicism, such as the shared tendency to seize a single dated event as both important on its own and as a "case" testing general principles. To animate these issues, Chandler offers a series of cases of built around key texts from 1819. Like the famous sonnet by Shelley from which it takes its name, this book simultaneously creates and critiques its own place in history. It sets out to be not only a crucial study of Romanticism, but also a major contribution to an understanding of historicism.
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