The Cambridge History of English Romantic Literature (The New Cambridge History of English Literature)

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Reprint, 7/19/2012
EAN 9781107629196, ISBN10: 1107629195

Paperback, 796 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm
Language: English

The Romantic period was one of the most creative, intense and turbulent periods of English literature, an age marked by revolution, reaction and reform in politics, and by the invention of imaginative literature in its distinctively modern form. This History presents an engaging account of six decades of literary production around the turn of the nineteenth century. Reflecting the most up-to-date research, the essays are designed both to provide a narrative of Romantic literature and to offer new and stimulating readings of the key texts. One group of essays addresses the various locations of literary activity – both in England and, as writers developed their interests in travel and foreign cultures, across the world. A second set of essays traces how texts responded to great historical and social change. With a comprehensive bibliography, timeline and index, this volume is an important resource for research and teaching in the field.

General introduction James Chandler
Part I. The Ends of Enlightenment
1. Sentiment and sensibility John Brewer
2. Antiquarianism, balladry, and the rehabilitation of romance Susan Manning
3. The Romantics and the political economists Catherine Gallager
4. The problem of periodisation
Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the fate of system Clifford Siskin
Part II. Geographies
The Scenes of Literary Life
5. London in the 1790s John Barrell
6. Edinburgh and lowland Scotland Ian Duncan
7. Romantic Ireland
1750–1845 Luke Gibbons
8. France, Germany, America David Simpson
9. The 'Warm South' Esther Schor
10. Country matters W. J. T. Mitchell
11. Romanticism and the wider world
poetry, travel literature and Empire Nigel Leask
12. The homes of England Margot Finn
13. Writing, reading and the scenes of war Mary A. Favret
14. Regency London Simon During
Part III. Histories
Writing in the New Movements
15. Rebellion, revolution, reform
the transit of the intellectuals Anne Janowitz
16. Changes in the world of publishing Adrian Johns
17. The new poetries Susan J. Wolfson
18. Romanticism and poetic autonomy Paul Hamilton
19. Transformations of the novel – I Deidre Lynch
20. Transformations of the novel – II Ina Ferris
21. Theatre, performance, and urban spectacle Julie Carlson
22. The epigenesis of genre
new forms from old Tilottama Rajan
23. The literature of the new sciences Jan Golinski
24. The making of child readers Katie Trumpener
Part IV. The Ends of Romanticism
25. Representation restructured Frances Ferguson
26. Romantic cultural Imperialism Saree Makdisi
27. Romanticism and religious modernity
from natural supernaturalism to literary sectarianism Kevin Gilmartin
28. Is Romanticism finished? Jerome McGann
Chronology
Bibliographies
Index.

Advance praise: 'Fifty years ago, literary studies was awash in big theories of Romanticism, created by the likes of M. H. Abrams, Geoffrey Hartman, and Harold Bloom; two decades later, Marilyn Butler argued that the very label 'Romantic' was 'historically unsound'. This collection suggests that no consensus has yet emerged: instead, the best of the essays suggest continuities with periods before and after. Rather than big theories, the contributors present kaleidoscopic snapshots of individual genres (the novel, the 'new poetry', drama, the ballad, children's literature); larger intellectual currents (John Brewer writes exceptionally well on 'sentiment and sensibility'); currently fashionable topics (imperialism, publishing history, disciplinarity); and - most interesting - the varying cultures of discrete localities (London, Ireland, Scotland). The result is an excellent book useful ... for its summaries of early twenty-first-century thinking about British literary culture from the 1770s to the 1830s.' Choice