The Poetics of Spice
Romantic Consumerism and the Exotic

This 2000 book explores the literary and cultural significance of spice, and the spice trade, in Romantic literature.

Timothy Morton (Author)

9780521771467, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 September 2000

300 pages, 17 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.61 kg

'Only one word describes Timothy Morton's The Poetics of Spice: Spicy. Like an exotic dish this book is both enticing and overwhelming.' BARS Bulletin

This 2000 book considers the literary and cultural significance of spice, and the spice trade, in Romantic literature, shedding new light on the impact of consumerism and capitalist ideology on writers of the period. Timothy Morton demonstrates how the emerging consumer culture was characterized by an ornate, figuratively rich mode of representation which he describes as 'the poetics of spice'. This is the focal point for a probing analysis that addresses a host of related themes - exoticism, orientalism, colonialism, the slave trade, race and gender issues, and, above all, capitalism. Employing a mixture of Marxist, deconstructive and psychoanalytic theory, Morton explores how capitalist ideology was inscribed in the very materials of consumption. The book takes a wide historical perspective, surveying a range of literary, political, medical, travel, trade and philosophical texts, and includes readings of Milton, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Leigh Hunt, Charlotte Smith and Southey among many others.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The confection of spice: historical and theoretical considerations
2. Trade winds
3. Place settings
4. Blood sugar
5. Sound and scents: further investigations of space
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]