Romantic things : a tree, a rock, a cloud / Mary Jacobus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacobus, Mary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850--Criticism and interpretation.

Wordsworth, William.

Nature in literature.

Romanticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Our thoughts are shaped as much by what things make of us as by what we make of them. Lyric poetry is especially concerned with things and their relationship to thought, sense, and understanding. In Romantic Things, Mary Jacobus explores the world of objects and phenomena in nature as expressed in Romantic poetry alongside the theme of sentience and sensory deprivation in literature and art. Jacobus discusses objects and attributes that test our perceptions and preoccupy both Romantic poetry and modern philosophy. John Clare, John Constable, Rainer Maria Rilke, W. G. Sebald, and Gerhard Richter make appearances around the central figure of William Wordsworth as Jacobus explores trees, rocks, clouds, breath, sleep, deafness, and blindness in their work. While she thinks through these things, she is assisted by the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Nancy. Helping us think more deeply about things that are at once visible and invisible, seen and unseen, felt and unfeeling, Romantic Things opens our eyes to what has been previously overlooked in lyric and Romantic poetry.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Gravity of Things

Chapter 1. Cloud Studies: The Visible Invisible

Chapter 2. Pastoral, after History: The Apple Orchard

Chapter 3. Touching Things: "Nutting" and the Standing of Trees

Chapter 4. Composing Sound: The Deaf Dalesman, "The Brothers," and Epitaphic Signs

Chapter 5. "Distressful Gift": Talking to the Dead

Chapter 6. The Breath of Life: Wordsworth and the Gravity of Thought

Chapter 7. "On the Very Brink of Vacancy": Things Unbeseen

Chapter 8. Senseless Rocks

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613766076

9781280994463

1280994460

9780226390680

0226390683

OCLC:

801411069