Charles Maturin: authorship, authenticity and the nation / Jim Kelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelly, Jim, 1976-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Maturin, Charles Robert, 1780-1824--Criticism and interpretation.

Maturin, Charles Robert.

Maturin, Charles Robert, 1780-1824.

Novelists, Irish--19th century--History and criticism.

Novelists, Irish.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

208 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Portland, OR ; Dublin : Four Courts Press, Ltd, 2011.

Summary:

"Charles Maturin (1780-1824) is best known today for his Gothic masterpiece "Melmoth the Wanderer" (1820). A thorough study of his wider work reveals him to have been a deeply conflicted writer at a time when a newly idealized conception of authorship was emerging alongside a ruthlessly commercial book industry. This is the first study to look at the entirety of Maturin's work in fiction, drama and sermons within the context of changing attitudes to authorship, authenticity and the idea of national literature in the Romantic period. Maturin emerges from this study a far more complex figure than his previous reception indicates, and also shows how his work engaged with issues at the heart of Irish, British and European Romanticism." -- Back Cover

Contents:

Introduction: Maturin and the work of writing

Affect/ agency/ authenticity

Imitations of immorality: "Fatal Revenge" and "The Wild Irish Boy"

'Passing before modern eyes': romance and rebellion in "The Milesian Chief"

'My muse I find is too atrocious for the stage': Maturin's drama

The trouble with "Women": gender and agency in modernity

Superstitious nonsense: "Melmoth the Wanderer" and the oral tradition

'Is this a country to be silent in?': confessional politics in "Five Sermons" and "The Albigenses"

Conclusion: Melmoth in the marketplace.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references and index.

ISBN:

9781846823046

1846823048

OCLC:

711044635