Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre
Re-forming Literature 1789–1837

Leading scholars of Romanticism explore the relationship between ideology and literary genre.

Tilottama Rajan (Edited by), Julia M. Wright (Edited by)

9780521581929, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 1998

308 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.62 kg

"The essays collected in Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre are a welcome sign of a renewed interest in the complex interaction of literature, history, and ideology during the Romantic period. This superb collection of essays significantly advances both the theory and practice of genre criticism." Alan Bewell, Letters in Canada

Romanticism has often been associated with the mode of lyric, or otherwise confined within mainstream genres. As a result, we have neglected the sheer diversity and generic hybridity of a literature that ranged from the Gothic novel to the national tale, from monthly periodicals to fictionalized autobiography. In this volume leading scholars of the period explore the ways in which the Romantics developed genre from a taxonomical given into a cultural category, so as to make it the scene of an ongoing struggle between fixed norms and new initiatives. Focusing on non-canonical writers (such as Thelwall, Godwin and the novelists of the 1790s), or placing authors such as Wordsworth and Byron in a non-canonical context, these essays explore the psychic and social politics of genre from a variety of theoretical perspectives, while the introduction looks at how genre itself was rethought by Romantic criticism.

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction Tilottama Rajan and Julia M. Wright
Part I. Genre, History, and the Public Sphere: 1. Godwin and the genre reformers: on necessity and contingency in romantic narrative theory Jon Klancher
2. Radical print culture in periodical form Kevin Gilmartin
3. History, trauma, and the limits of the liberal imagination: William Godwin's historical fiction Gary Handwerk
4. Writing on the border: the national tale, female writing, and the public sphere Ina Ferris
Part II. Genre and Society: 5. Genres from life in Wordsworth's art: Lyrical Ballads 1798 Don Bialostosky
6. 'A voice in the representation': John Thelwall and the enfranchisement of literature Judith Thompson
7. 'I am ill-fitted': conflicts of genre in Elisa Fenwick's Secresy Julia M. Wright
8. Frankenstein as neo-Gothic: from the ghost of the couterfeit to the monster of abjection Jerrold E. Hogle
Part III. Genre, Gender, and the Private Sphere: 9. Autonarration and genotext in Mary Hays' Memoirs of Emma Courtney Tilottama Rajan
10. 'The science of herself': scenes of female enlightenment Mary Jacobus
11. The failures of romanticism Jerome McGann
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]