British romanticism and the matter of voice / Alice Rhodes, University of York.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rhodes, Alice, Dr., author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in Romanticism.

Cambridge studies in Romanticism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Speech in literature.

Voice in literature.

English literature--18th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

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

Romanticism--Great Britain.

Romanticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 192 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Physiological, political, and poetic studies of the relationship between the human body and voice saw increased attention and took on new significance in British literature of the politically turbulent period between the 1770s and the 1820s. Focusing on Erasmus Darwin, John Thelwall, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, three writers whose works draw together the fields of science, politics, language, and literature, and who were subject to charges of political radicalism and materialist philosophy, Alice Rhodes draws attention to a developing theory of spoken and poetic utterance which, for its subscribers, suggested a fundamental, material, and reciprocal connection between the speaking body and the physical, social, and political worlds around it. By investigating the Romantic-era fascination with the mechanics and physiology of speech production, she explores how Darwin, Thelwall, and Shelley came to present the voice as a form of physical, autonomous, and effective political action.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Series information

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: 'Mechanic Art and Elocutionary Science'

Matter in Motion

The Speaking Body

Art and Science

Mechanics, Physiology, Poetry

Chapter 1 Erasmus Darwin and the Mechanics of Speech

Introduction: 'Analysis of Articulate Sounds'

'A wooden mouth with lips of soft leather': Erasmus Darwin's Speaking Machine

'Matter of a finer kind': Darwin's Medico-Philosophy

'Next to each thought associate sound accords': Ways of Speaking

'Correctness of taste, and depth of research': Ways of Thinking and Ways of Writing

'Shake the senate with the voice of truth': Progress through Speech in The Temple of Nature

Chapter 2 John Thelwall and the Physiology of Speech

Introduction: 'The tongue of a political lecturer'

The Tribune and the Body of the Orator

'Mere mechanical impulse': Materialism, Speech, and the Politics of the Involuntary

Materialising Articulation and Articulating Materialism

'Rouse, and agitate and impress': The Science of the Body and the Practice of Poetry

Chapter 3 Percy Bysshe Shelley and the Poetry of Speech

Introduction: 'A heart to feel, a brain to think, and a tongue to utter'

'Uniform and harmonious recurrence of sound': Poetry as Speech in A Defence of Poetry

'But from my lips the unwilling accents start': Unconscious Utterance in Julian and Maddalo

'The measure of the universe': Universal Harmony in Prometheus Unbound

'Deeds not words': Speech as Action in The Mask of Anarchy

Coda: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Speaking Body

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jan 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009503433

100950343X

9781009503396

1009503391

9781009503426

1009503421