John Keats in Context

A wide-ranging exploration of the influence of Keats' world on his life and work, enhancing our engagement with his poems.

Michael O'Neill (Edited by)

9781107070554, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 June 2017

388 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.76 kg

'This collection of scholarly reassessments in the interests of 'a full-scale reconsideration of Keats's achievement and its enabling contexts' … comprises thirty-four short chapters of around ten pages each, organized into six parts: 'Life, Letters, Texts'; 'Cultural Contexts'; 'Ideas and Poetics'; 'Poetic Contexts'; 'Influence'; and 'Critical Reception'.' William Christie, The Review of English Studies

John Keats (1795–1821) continues to delight and challenge readers both within and beyond the academic community through his poems and letters. This volume provides frameworks for enhanced analysis and appreciation of Keats and his work, with each chapter supplying a succinct, informed, and accessible account of a particular topic. Leading scholars examine the life and work of Keats against the backdrop of his influences, contemporaries, and reception, and explore the interaction of poet and world. The essays consider his enduring but ever-altering appeal, engage with critical discussion and debate, and offer revisionary close reading of the poems and letters. Students and specialists will find their knowledge of Keats's life and work enriched by chapters that survey subjects ranging from education, relationships, and religion to art, genre, and film.

Part I. Life, Letters, Texts: 1. Biographies and film Sarah Wootton
2. Formative years and medical training Nicholas Roe and Hrileena Ghosh
3. Surgery, science and suffering Nicholas Roe
4. Fanny Brawne and other women Heidi Thomson
5. Mortality Shahidha Bari
6. Travel Jeffrey C. Robinson
7. Letters Madeleine Callaghan
8. Manuscripts and publishing history John Barnard
Part II. Cultural Contexts: 9. The Hunt circle and the Cockney School Gregory Leadbetter
10. London Timothy Webb
11. Politics Richard Cronin
12. Sociability Grant F. Scott
13. The visual and plastic arts Nancy Moore Goslee
14. Religion and myth Anthony John Harding
Part III. Ideas and Poetics: 15. The Enlightenment and history Porscha Fermanis
16. Keats and Hazlitt Duncan Wu
17. Imagination, beauty and truth Charles W. Mahoney
18. The poetical character Seamus Perry
19. The senses and sensation Stacey McDowell
20. Prosody and versification in the Odes Michael O'Neill
Part IV. Poetic Contexts: 21. Poetic precursors (1): Dante and Shakespeare Chris Murray
22. Poetic precursors (2): Spenser, Milton, Dryden, Pope Beth Lau
23. Contemporaries (1) (and immediate predecessors): Tighe, Radcliffe, Southey, Burns, Chatterton, Hunt, Wordsworth Michael O'Neill
24. Contemporaries (2): Coleridge, Byron, Shelley Jane Stabler
25. Ballad, romance and narrative Andrew Bennett
26. Epic and tragedy Susan J. Wolfson
27. Lyrical genres Christopher R. Miller
Part V. Influence: 28. Tennyson to Wilde Herbert F. Tucker
29. Hardy, Edward Thomas, Stevens, Bishop, Heaney Michael O'Neill
30. American writing Mark Sandy
Part VI. Critical Reception: 31. Contemporary reviews Kelvin Everest
32 Critical reception, 1821–1900 Francis O'Gorman
33. Keats criticism, 1900–63 Matthew Scott
34. Keats criticism, post-1963 Richard Marggraf Turley.

Subject Areas: Literary companions, book reviews & guides [DSRC], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]