England in 1819
The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism
606 pages
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7 halftones
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6 x 9
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© 1998
Many of the writers from 1819, argues James Chandler, were acutely aware not only of their writing's place in history, but also of its place as history—a realization of a literary "spirit of the age" that resonates strongly with the current "return to history" in literary studies. Chandler explores the ties between Romantic and contemporary historicism and offers a series of cases of his own built around key texts from 1819.
"1819? At first sight, it might not seem a 'hot date'; but as James Chandler argues in his powerful book, it would be a mistake to overlook a year of such exceptional political conflagration and literary pyrotechnics in British history. Chandler's study is a wide-ranging, enormously ambitious, densely packed, closely argued work."—John Brewer, New Republic
"The book's largest argument, and the source of its considerable revelations, is that late twentieth-century practices of cultural history-writing have their roots in the peculiar Romantic historicism born in post-Waterloo Britain."—Jon Klancher, Times Literary Supplement
"A monumental work of scholarship."—Terry Eagleton, The Independent
"1819? At first sight, it might not seem a 'hot date'; but as James Chandler argues in his powerful book, it would be a mistake to overlook a year of such exceptional political conflagration and literary pyrotechnics in British history. Chandler's study is a wide-ranging, enormously ambitious, densely packed, closely argued work."—John Brewer, New Republic
"The book's largest argument, and the source of its considerable revelations, is that late twentieth-century practices of cultural history-writing have their roots in the peculiar Romantic historicism born in post-Waterloo Britain."—Jon Klancher, Times Literary Supplement
"A monumental work of scholarship."—Terry Eagleton, The Independent
The University of Chicago Press: Gordon J. Laing Award
Won
Association of American Publishers: PROSE Book Award
Honorable Mention
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Works and Days
Pt. 1: The "Historical Situation" of Romanticism
Ch. 1: Specificity after Structuralism: Dating the "Return to History"
Ch. 2: An Art of the State: Historicism and the Measures of Uneven Development
Ch. 3: Representing Culture, Romanticizing Contradiction: The Politics of Literary Exemplarity
Ch. 4: Altering the Case: The Invention of the Historical Situation
Pt. 2: Reading England in 1819
Ch. 5: Reopening the Case of Scott
Ch. 6: Byron's Causes: The Moral Mechanics of Don Juan
Ch. 7: An "1819 Temper": Keats and the History of Psyche
Ch. 8: Concerning the Influence of America on the Mind: Western Settlements, "English Writers," and the Case of U.S. Culture
Ch. 9: The Case of "The Case of Shelley"
Ch. 10: History's Lyre: The "West Wind" and the Poet's Work
Index
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Works and Days
Pt. 1: The "Historical Situation" of Romanticism
Ch. 1: Specificity after Structuralism: Dating the "Return to History"
Ch. 2: An Art of the State: Historicism and the Measures of Uneven Development
Ch. 3: Representing Culture, Romanticizing Contradiction: The Politics of Literary Exemplarity
Ch. 4: Altering the Case: The Invention of the Historical Situation
Pt. 2: Reading England in 1819
Ch. 5: Reopening the Case of Scott
Ch. 6: Byron's Causes: The Moral Mechanics of Don Juan
Ch. 7: An "1819 Temper": Keats and the History of Psyche
Ch. 8: Concerning the Influence of America on the Mind: Western Settlements, "English Writers," and the Case of U.S. Culture
Ch. 9: The Case of "The Case of Shelley"
Ch. 10: History's Lyre: The "West Wind" and the Poet's Work
Index
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History: British and Irish History
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
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