An Outline of Romanticism in the West / / John Claiborne Isbell.

• VerfasserIn: Isbell, John Claiborne,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge : : Open Book Publishers,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (252 pages)

Navigating the landscape of Romantic literature and art across Europe and the Americas, An Outline of Romanticism in the West invites readers to embark upon a literary journey. Showcasing a breadth of theoretical and contextual approaches to the study of Romanticism, John Isbell provides an insightful contemporary overview of the field, paired with wide-ranging comparative reflections on the art and literature that helped shape it. Discussing seminal Romantic texts such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or Germaine de Staël's Corinne ou l'Italie, Isbell provides a foundation through which to investigate core concepts, such as the continuum of Romance, the Romantic hero, and Romantic literature's characteristic repudiation of its own Romanticism. Unusually for a single-author monograph, the book includes both published and unpublished material covering Romantic creation across Europe and the two Americas. Identifying Romanticism as an international movement, Isbell seeks to emphasise a theme frequently ignored by many academics: the roots of Romanticism, and its variations, as a national art. His arguments are supported by extensive interrogations of the political and historical contexts that moulded the outlooks of the writers and artists central to the period. An Outline of Romanticism in the West underlines the interplay between nationalism, history, and artistic inspiration, and will therefore be of value to students and scholars of literature and history, as well as to general readers with an interest in Romanticism in the West.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii -- Introduction 1 -- Chapter One: Romanticism and the Nations of the West 13 -- 1. German Lands, 1800. Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen 13 -- 2. France, 1807. Germaine de Staël, Corinne ou l'Italie (Corinne, or Italy) 19 -- 3. Spain, 1814-1815. Francisco Goya, 3 de mayo 1808 (3rd May 1808) 27 -- 4. The British Isles (England), 1818. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus 33 -- 5. Russia, 1825-1832. Alexander Pushkin, Evgenii Onegin (Eugene Onegin) 40 -- 6. The United States, 1826. James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans 46 -- 7. Eastern Europe (Poland), 1834. Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz 52 -- 8. Northern Europe (Denmark), 1835-1837. Hans Christian Andersen, Eventyr (Fairy Tales) 59 -- 9. The Italian Peninsula, 1835. Giacomo Leopardi, Canti (Cantos) 65 -- 10. Latin America (Argentina), 1838/1871. Esteban Echeverría, El Matadero (The Slaughter Yard) 71 -- 11. The Low Countries (Belgium), 1838. Hendrik Conscience, De Leeuw Van Vlaanderen (The Lion of Flanders) 76 -- 12. Portugal, 1846. João de Almeida Garrett, Viagens na minha terra (Travels in My Homeland) 81 -- Chapter Two: The Frankenstein Dilemma. Romantic Disavowals of Romanticism, 1800-1830 87 -- 1. German Lands 89 -- 2. The Swiss Confederation 94 -- 3. The British Isles 97 -- 4. Italy, Russia, Sweden 100 -- 5. France 103 -- 6. Conclusion 107 -- Chapter Three: Romantic Novel and Verse Romance. Is There a Romance Continuum? 113 -- 0. Prefatory Remarks on Terminology 113 -- 1. German Lands 116 -- 2. The British Isles 121 -- 3. France 129 -- 4. The Italian Peninsula 134 -- 5. Northern and Eastern Europe 135 -- 6. Iberia and the Low Countries 138 -- 7. The Two Americas 139 -- 8. Conclusion 141 -- Chapter Four: Racine et Shakespeare's Sleeping Partners. The Return of the Repressed 143 -- 1. Private Life and Empire: Henri Beyle, 1803-1814 144 -- 2. The Birth of Stendhal: Romantic Milan, 1814-1821 150 -- 3. Paris in 1823-1825: Racine et Shakespeare 154 -- 4. Conclusion 167 -- Chapter Five: Thoughts on the Romantic Hero, 1776-1848 171 -- 1. Prelude: Manon Lescaut and Jean-Jacques Rousseau 171 -- 2. German Lands 174 -- 3. France 180 -- 4. The British Isles 187 -- 5. The Italian Peninsula 192 -- 6. Eastern and Northern Europe 194 -- 7. Iberia and the Low Countries 197 -- 8. The Americas 198 -- 9. The Drama 199 -- 10. Romantic Women Writers: The State of the Field 202 -- 11. Conclusion 206 -- Romanticism Outside the Western Ambit 211 -- Bibliography 213 -- Index 229.