
Romantic Narrative
Shelley, Hays, Godwin, Wollstonecraft
Tilottama Rajan(Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Published on 9. February 2011
Book
Hardback
312 pages
978-0-8018-9721-4 (ISBN)
Description
Often identified with its lyric poetry, Romanticism has come to be dismissed by historicists as an ineffectual idealism. By focusing on Romantic narrative, noted humanist Tilottama Rajan takes issue with this identification, as well as with the equation of narrative itself with the governmental apparatus of the Novel. Exploring the role of narrativity in the works of Romantic writers, Rajan also reflects on larger disciplinary issues such as the role of poetry versus prose in an emergent modernity and the place of Romanticism itself in a Victorianized nineteenth century. While engaging both genres, Romantic Narrative responds to the current critical shift from poetry to prose by concentrating, paradoxically, on a poetics of narrative in Romantic prose fiction. Rajan argues that poiesis, as a mode of thinking, is Romanticism's legacy to an age of prose. She elucidates this thesis through careful readings of Shelley's Alastor and his Gothic novels, Godwin's Caleb Williams and St. Leon, Hays' Memoirs of Emma Courtney, and Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of Woman.
Rajan, winner of the Keats-Shelley Association's Distinguished Lifetime Award and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is one of Romanticism's leading scholars. Effective, articulate, and readable, Romantic Narrative will appeal to scholars in both nineteenth-century studies and narrative theory.
Rajan, winner of the Keats-Shelley Association's Distinguished Lifetime Award and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is one of Romanticism's leading scholars. Effective, articulate, and readable, Romantic Narrative will appeal to scholars in both nineteenth-century studies and narrative theory.
Reviews / Votes
With philosophical sophistication and extraordinary critical intelligence, Rajan also presents complex and original readings. Choice 2011More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-9721-4 (9780801897214)
DOI
10.1353/book.474
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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E-Book
02/2011
Johns Hopkins University Press
€51.99
Available for download
Person
Tilottama Rajan is Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Western Ontario, where she was also previously Director of the Centre for Theory and Criticism. She is the author of several books, including, most recently, Deconstruction and the Remainders of Phenomenology: Sartre, Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
List of Abbreviations
1. The Trauma of Lyric: Shelley's Missed Encounter with Poetry in Alastos
2. Shelley's Promethean Narratives: Gothic Anamorphoses in Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, and Prometheus Unbound
3. Unbinding the Personal: Autonarration, Epistolarity, and Genotext in Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney
4. The Scene of Judgment: Trial and Confession in Godwin's Caleb Williams and Other Fiction
5. Gambling, Alchemy, Speculation: Godwin's Critique of Pure Reason in St. Leon
6. Whose Text? Godwin's Editing of Mary Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of Woman
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Introduction
List of Abbreviations
1. The Trauma of Lyric: Shelley's Missed Encounter with Poetry in Alastos
2. Shelley's Promethean Narratives: Gothic Anamorphoses in Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, and Prometheus Unbound
3. Unbinding the Personal: Autonarration, Epistolarity, and Genotext in Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney
4. The Scene of Judgment: Trial and Confession in Godwin's Caleb Williams and Other Fiction
5. Gambling, Alchemy, Speculation: Godwin's Critique of Pure Reason in St. Leon
6. Whose Text? Godwin's Editing of Mary Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of Woman
Notes
Works Cited
Index