Romanticism E-Book

Frederick Burwick

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Keywords in Literature and Culture (KILC)
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 746

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Compiles 70 of the key terms most frequently used or discussed by authors of the Romantic period - and most often deliberated by critics and literary historians of the era. * Offers an indispensable resource for understanding the ideas and differing interpretations that shaped the Romantic period * Includes keywords spanning Abolition and Allegory, through Madness and Monsters, to Vision and Vampires * Features in-depth descriptions of each entry's direct meaning and connotations in relation to its usage and thought in literary culture * Provides deep insights into the political, social, and cultural climate of one of the most expressive periods of Western literary history * Draws on the author's extensive experience of teaching, lecturing, and writing on Romantic literature

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Cover

Keywords in Literature and Culture

Title page

Copyright page

Introduction

A

Abolition

References and Suggested Reading

Allegory

References and Suggested Reading

Antiquarianism

References and Suggested Reading

Art for Art’s Sake

References and Suggested Reading

Associationism

References and Suggested Reading

Autobiography

References and Suggested Reading

B

Bardolatry

References and Suggested Reading

Bluestockings

R

eferences and Suggested Reading

C

Childhood

References and Suggested Reading

Colonialism

References and Suggested Reading

Crime

References and Suggested Reading

D

Dandyism

References and Suggested Readings

Dialectics

References and Suggested Reading

Dreams

References and Suggested Reading

E

Ekphrasis

References and Suggested Reading

Eroticism

References and Suggested Reading

F

Folklore

References and Suggested Reading

G

Genius

References and Suggested Reading

Gothic

References and Suggested Reading

Grotesque

References and Suggested Reading

Gusto

References and Suggested Reading

H

Harlequinade

References and Suggested Reading

Hellenism

References and Suggested Reading

Higher Criticism

References and Suggested Reading

Homosexuality

References and Suggested Reading

I

Illusion

References and Suggested Reading

Imagination

References and Suggested Reading

Imitation

References and Suggested Reading

Incest

References and Suggested Readings

Inspiration

References and Suggested Reading

M

Madness

References and Suggested Reading

Medievalism

References and Suggested Reading

Melancholy

References and Suggested Reading

Melodrama

References and Suggested Reading

Mesmerism

References and Suggested Readings

Metaliterature (Metapoetry, Metafiction, Metadrama)

References and Suggested Reading

Metonymy

References and Suggested Reading

Monsters

References and Suggested Reading

Mythopoeia

References and Suggested Reading

N

Nature

References and Suggested Reading

Necessitarianism

References and Suggested Readings

Negative Capability

References and Suggested Readings

O

Organicism

References and Suggested Reading

Orientalism

References and Suggested Reading

P

Pantheism

References and Suggested Reading

Parody

References and Suggested Reading

Passion

References and Suggested Reading

Pathetic Fallacy

References and Suggested Reading

Picturesque

References and Suggested Reading

Poetic Form

References and Suggested Reading

Prometheus

References and Suggested Readings

R

Reflection

References and Suggested Reading

Reform

References and Suggested Reading

Religion

References and Suggested Readings

Revolution

References and Suggested Reading

Rights

References and Suggested Reading

Romantic Irony

References and Suggested Reading

Romanticism

References and Suggested Reading

Ruins

References and Suggested Readings

S

Satire

References and Suggested Reading

Science

References and Suggested Reading

Sensibility

References and Suggested Reading

Solitude

References and Suggested Reading

Sublime

References and Suggested Readings

Supernaturalism

References and Suggested Reading

Symbol

References and Suggested Reading

Sympathy

References and Suggested Reading

T

Transcendentalism

References and Suggested Reading

Translation

References and Suggested Reading

Travel

References and Suggested Reading

V

Vampire Aesthetics

References and Suggested Reading

Vision

References and Suggested Reading

W

Women’s Rights

References and Suggested Reading

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Keywords in Literature and Culture

The books in this series present keywords for individual literary periods in an easily accessible reference format. More than a dictionary, each volume is written by a leading scholar and consists of an engaging collection of short essays, which consider the ways in which words both register and explore historical change. Indebted to the work of Raymond Williams, the series identifies and documents keywords as cultural analysis, taking the reader beyond semantic definition to uncover the uncertainties, disagreements, and confrontations evident in differing usages and conflicting connotations.

Published:

Anglo-Saxon Keywords

Allen J. Frantzen

Modernism: Keywords

Melba Cuddy-Keane,Adam Hammond, andAlexandra Peat

Romanticism: Keywords

Frederick Burwick

Forthcoming:

Middle English Keywords

Kellie Robertson

British Literature 1660–1789: Keywords

Robert DeMaria Jr.

Romanticism:Keywords

Frederick Burwick

This edition first published 2015© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Burwick, Frederick. Romanticism : keywords / Frederick Burwick. – First edition.  pages cm. – (Keywords in literature and culture)Summary: “Romanticism Keywords offers readers an invaluable collection of 70 key terms most frequently discussed by authors of the Romantic period–and most often deliberated and debated by contemporary critics and literary historians of the era”– Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 978-0-470-65983-0 (hardback)1. Romanticism–Dictionaries. 2. Romanticism–History and criticism–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. English language–Etymology. I. Title. PN603.B86 2015 809′.914503–dc23    2014025619

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Introduction

Romanticism, an intellectual and artistic movement associated with the fervour of revolutionary change that engaged all of Europe and the United States during the latter decades of the eighteenth and the first third of the nineteenth century, left no discipline of human endeavour unaltered. There was a Romantic way of playing the violin, as in the spontaneity and virtuosity of Niccolò Paganini, whose left-hand pizzicato, double-stop harmonics, and ricochet bowings made it seem that he played in duet with an invisible devil, a belief he encouraged with his demonic appearance and frenzied style. There was also a Romantic way of engaging a military campaign, as in the ambush tactics and guerrilla warfare first proposed by Carl von Clausewitz in his “Principles of War” (1812), then four years later developed into a full study of military strategy in On War (Vom Kriege, 1816; published in 1832). The sciences witnessed a shift from matter-based physics to energy-based physics, philosophy from materialism to idealism, literature and art from mimetic form to subjective expression, politics from monarchical authority to democratic individualism, religion from ecclesiastic dogma to intuitive faith. Literary terms and concepts that had been in use since classical times, or had emerged with the Renaissance, took on new meanings and significance, and newer terms were introduced. The sonnet that had been absent from the tool chest since the time of Donne and Milton was restored to popularity, and the ballad, too, was back in favor. Romantic irony claimed a new modus operandi in disrupting the illusionism of literature. Associationism was another literary tool added during the latter half of the eighteenth century. In addition, the events of the age – the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, colonialism, and the slave trade – brought new themes into literature.

The focus of this volume is almost exclusively on the developments in British Romanticism, with only occasional side glances to the Continent and the newly formed United States. The 73 keywords defined and discussed in this volume survey the literary experimentation and innovation of an age during which traditional genres, tropes, and modes of expression were transformed. They are the key terms frequently discussed by authors of the Romantic period and also frequently deliberated by critics and literary historians of the period. Further articulated within my own experience in teaching and lecturing on Romantic literature, these terms provide a necessary conceptual understanding of Romantic aesthetics and insight into the political, social, and cultural climate of the period. I identify those words that were given their basic formulation by writers of the period (e.g., Hazlitt on “gusto”; Coleridge on “copy and imitation”; Keats on “negative capability”), and I also recount subsequent and more recent concerns that have shifted the use and signification of words (e.g., Orientalism or Colonialism). There are a few words that have gained significance in the study of the period that were unknown and unused during the years 1789 to 1830. One such word is “hypnotism,” not coined until the mid-nineteenth century, and replacing the word Mesmerism (named after Franz Anton Mesmer), which is the keyword that will have its own entry. Similarly, the interest in ecological thought in the Romantic period has continued to command critical scrutiny since the 1990s; in the Romantic period, however, the concept of ecology was addressed, as it will be in this volume, under the broader heading of Nature. Issues pertinent to the rise of feminism are discussed under the heading of Women’s Rights.

On the other hand, I have treated “metapoetry,” “metafiction,” and “metadrama” under the designation Metaliterature, fully aware that the manifold applications of the Greek prefix meta in the mid and late nineteenth century were based on a false interpretation. Under the heading Autobiography, “memoirs” and “confessions” are also included. Although it made for a lengthier entry, I kept Religion as single heading as an efficient way to avoid repeating contextual issues for separate entries on Anglicanism, Catholicism, and possibly further separate entries on the Methodists, Unitarians, and other Dissenting sects. It has also been necessary to address the nuances in meaning imposed among authors who did not use the same words in the same way. For example, Blake in a marginal gloss to the Preface to Wordsworth’s Poems (1815) objects that “Imagination has nothing to do with Memory.” The entry on Imagination explains how authors differed in their understanding of the term. There was a significant difference, too, in the way in which Blake, Coleridge, Shelley, De Quincey used the term “vision.” In spite of the occasional use of the compounded term “dream vision,” I emphasize the differences in separate entries on Dreams and Vision.

Nesting within Romanticism: Keywords are many constituent isms. Raymond Williams, who also has many isms among his Keywords (Fourth Estate, 2014), provided a separate entry on isms. As a Greek suffix to form nouns, ism has a long history and a vast array of applications. The largest category of isms are those that designate “actions and beliefs characteristic of some group … or tendency … or school.” Williams also notes that by the end of the eighteenth century, as a reaction to the proliferation of isms, the suffix was isolated as an independent term. As examples he cites Walpole: “squabble about Socianism, or some of these isms” (1789); Shelley: “professes no ‘-ism’ but superbism and irrationalism” (1811); and Carlyle: “neither Pantheist not Pot-theist, nor any Theist or Ist whatsoever, having a decided contempt for all such manner of system-builders or sect-founders” (1835). Blake expressed the same resistance to being co-opted by systems-builders, when he declared “I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Mans” (1803).

Readers will not read through many of these entries before discovering that I repeat a few passages of Romantic poetry and prose in explaining keywords which may share related issues. For example, I cite Coleridge’s “willing suspension of disbelief” in my commentaries on Grotesque, Illusion, Imagination, Mesmerism, Metonymy, and Supernaturalism. After introducing Wordsworth’s concept of “spontaneous overflow” in the entry on Dialectics, I return to it again in discussing Gusto and Imagination. The interweaving of certain key passages is supplemented at the end of each entry by cross-references to other entries which will guide the reader to further interrelations. In spite of the presentation of keywords in discrete entries, readers will be reminded that all terms belong to an exposition of Romanticism. The detailed index provides page references for concepts, events, works, and authors. Instead of supplying a cumulative bibliography at the close of this volume, the reader will find each entry has “References and Suggested Reading” which provide pertinent sources for further study.

As extensively as possible, literary passages cited in this volume may be found in Duncan Wu’s Romanticism: An Anthology, 4th ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). I have endeavoured to take advantage of Wu’s inclusion of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Joanna Baillie, Felicia Hemans, Charlotte Smith, Dorothy Wordsworth, and many more of the women writers of the period. A number of the keywords are elucidated more fulsomely in the Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Complementing, rather than repeating commentary from these two sources, each entry in Romanticism: Keywords addresses the meaning of the word in direct relation to the thought and usage in British literary culture. Discriminating criteria will be operative throughout to distinguish changes in meaning that have emerged subsequent to the Romantic period as well as differences in usage during the period.

A

Abolition

There were two Abolitionist Acts, one to abolish the slave trade, the other to abolish slavery. The first was the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade that was passed in Parliament in 1807; the second was the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. The Act of 1807 was ineffective in stopping the slave trade even to British colonies, for many rogue British ships continued transporting slaves for high profits. If they were pursued by a ship from the Royal Navy, they could hoist a foreign flag and declare themselves independent of British jurisdiction, or they could dump their human cargo overboard. Ships from other nations were still engaged in slave transport. A quarter of a century later, the Emancipation Movement brought about the Act of 1833, which would have been more effective if it had had fewer clauses of exception. The plantation owner would argue want of housing or other essentials for the care of a slave if liberated. The largest exception went to the East India Company, which was also the largest house of foreign trade and major source of British revenue. The East India Company was allowed to keep slaves for another 10 years, until 1843. It was not just the plantation owners but the British economy as a whole that was dependent on slave labor.

Although distinguished from those who had been abducted in Africa and sold into slavery in the colonies, an estimated 1400 black people were held in servitude in England until 1772. William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, presided over the case of James Somerset, a slave owned by Charles Stewart, an American customs officer, who had arrived in England on business. Somerset ran away, but was recaptured and bound as a slave to be sent to Jamaica. When he was brought to trial, Granville Sharp and a number of other abolitionists attended the case, determined to secure a judgment that would abolish slavery. Observing that no law of England approved slavery, Mansfield ruled that Somerset must be discharged. While the Somerset case confirmed that it was illegal to hold slaves in England, Mansfield’s judgment was by no means an end to slavery (Heward 1979: 139–140).

Slavery was justified by claims that the Africans were sub-human, uneducable, incapable of functioning on their own. Against this greed-motivated hypocrisy, the persistent efforts of a few dedicated leaders gradually made progress. Thomas Clarkson, an influential abolitionist, wrote on the injustice of slavery in 1785 as a student at Cambridge, and subsequently published his Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade (1788). He went aboard an African trading ship, The Lively. Not a slave ship, it carried African carvings and other artifacts. The craftsmanship made it obvious that the claims of the slave traders were false; these were an intelligent and artistic people. Clarkson collected and began exhibiting more examples of their art. He filled his work with evidence of their creative skills, and with accounts of the cruelty to which they were subjected. From the sailors he interviewed, Clarkson published (1789), based on the narrative of a sailor who had served aboard a slave ship.