The politics of romanticism : the social contract and literature / Zoe Beenstock.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beenstock, Zoe, author.

Series:

Edinburgh critical studies in romanticism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--19th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Romanticism--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Romanticism.

Romanticism--Political aspects--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Social contract--History--19th century.

Social contract.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

vii, 228 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016]

Summary:

The Politics of Romanticism examines the relationship between two major traditions which have not been considered in conjunction: British Romanticism and social contract philosophy. Zoe Beenstock argues that an emerging political vocabulary was translated into a literary vocabulary in social contract theory, which shaped the literature of Romantic Britain, as well as German Idealism, the philosophical tradition through which Romanticism is more usually understood. Beenstock locates the Romantic movement's coherence in contract theory's definitive dilemma: the critical disruption of the individual and the social collective. By looking at the intersection of the social contract, Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, and canonical works of Romanticism and its political culture, her book provides an alternative to the model of retreat which has dominated accounts of Romanticism of the last century. Key Features, Develops a new understanding of the politics of the Romantic movement, Offers fresh readings of canonical works by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Godwin, Mary Shelley and Carlyle by tracing their implicit dialogue with the political philosophy of Rousseau and other Enlightenment political theorists, Shows that the philosophical roots of Romanticism and its ties to German Idealism originate in empiricism, Carries important consequences for the contemporary understanding of the self, an understanding that is partly rooted in notions that originated with the Romantics Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Philosophy

1 Forming a Social Contract: Hobbes to Anti-Jacobinism 17

2 Writing the Social Contradiction: Rousseau's Literary Politics 44

Part II Poetry

3 Coleridge's Exile from the Social Contract, 1795-1829 73

4 Individual Sovereignty and Community: Wordsworth's Prelude 100

Part III Novels

5 Empiricism's Secret History: Fleetwood and Rousseau 131

6 Gendering the General Will: Frankenstein's Breaches of Contract 158.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-213) and index.

ISBN:

9781474401036

1474401031

OCLC:

928573802