Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands : : Shelley's Poetic Development and Romantic Geography / / Nahoko Miyamoto Alvey.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter UTP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2015
• VerfasserIn: Alvey, Nahoko Miyamoto,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley had a complicated relationship with the British Empire and the culture of colonialism. Considered politically radical and scandalous in Britain, Shelley lived in self-imposed exile and set much of his writing in foreign places. In Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands Nahoko Miyamoto Alvey examines the ways in which Shelley developed a 'Romantic geography' to provide visionary alternatives to an earth devastated by a new type of European colonialism and global expansion. Intertextually rich, Alvey's work establishes the context in which poems by Shelley and other Romantics were written by presenting relevant histories, travel texts, scientific writings, and archival material, and are all complemented by postcolonial analysis. Unique in its emphasis on the optimistic and positive aspects of Shelley's poetical works, Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands offers a different perspective on Romantic Orientalism, and a new look at how the poet imagined the relationship between the Self and the Other. Thorough and original, this book will be of interest to Romanticists, postcolonialists, and anyone interested in alternative responses to acts of colonialism and empire.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- A Note on Shelley Texts -- Introduction -- 1. Queen Mab: The Female Dreamers and a Pathless Wilderness -- 2. 'Alastor': A Solitary Quester and a New Eastern Geography -- 3. 'Mont Blanc': The Questioning Traveller and a Visionary Geography of Chamonix -- 4. Prometheus Unbound: The Eastern and Western Lovers on the Highest Mountain -- 5. 'The Witch of Atlas': The Hybrid Explorer and Shelley's Joyous Challenge -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index