Romanticism and Religion from William Cowper to Wallace StevensThe relationship between literature and religion is one of the most groundbreaking and challenging areas of Romantic studies. Covering the entire field of Romanticism from its eighteenth-century origins in the writing of William Cowper and its proleptic stirrings in Paradise Lost to late-twentieth-century manifestations in the work of Wallace Stevens, the essays in this timely volume explore subjects such as Romantic attitudes towards creativity and its relation to suffering and religious apprehension; the allure of the 'veiled' and the figure of the monk in Gothic and Romantic writing; Miltonic light and inspiration in the work of Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats; the relationship between Southey's and Coleridge's anti-Catholicism and definitions of religious faith in the Romantic period; the stammering of Romantic attempts to figure the ineffable; the emergence of a feminised Christianity and a gendered sublime; the development of Calvinism and its role in contemporary religious controversies. Its primary focus is the canonical Romantic poets, with a particular emphasis on Byron, whose work is most in need of critical re-evaluation given its engagement with the Christian and Islamic worlds and its critique of totalising religious and secular readings. The collection is an original and much-needed intervention in Romantic studies, bringing together the contextual awareness of recent historicist scholarship with the newly awakened interest in matters of form and an appreciation of the challenges of postmodern theory. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
Page 8
... experience. However, in recent years there has been an exponential increase of interest in apophaticism.49 So much so, that Denys Turner has been prompted to say of the theological community: 'We are all apophatic theologians now ...
... experience. However, in recent years there has been an exponential increase of interest in apophaticism.49 So much so, that Denys Turner has been prompted to say of the theological community: 'We are all apophatic theologians now ...
Page 14
... experience of Calvinism and offers new research which suggests that the church the Byrons attended in Aberdeen was 'the only church in Scotland where there was an organ'and where 'the service [was] chanted' as in English cathedrals (p ...
... experience of Calvinism and offers new research which suggests that the church the Byrons attended in Aberdeen was 'the only church in Scotland where there was an organ'and where 'the service [was] chanted' as in English cathedrals (p ...
Page 15
... experience with obsessive empiricism (p. 163). It is, therefore, Cain's 'unrealistic expectations' of language that are articulated in the allegedly incompetent blank verse of the play (p. 155). By returning to the unit of the line and ...
... experience with obsessive empiricism (p. 163). It is, therefore, Cain's 'unrealistic expectations' of language that are articulated in the allegedly incompetent blank verse of the play (p. 155). By returning to the unit of the line and ...
Page 16
... experiences of visual art to encounters with the natural world and textual artifice, Corinna Russell's chapter examines the ways in which John Keats's sensuous 'fine excess' continued to be 16 Romanticism and Religion from William ...
... experiences of visual art to encounters with the natural world and textual artifice, Corinna Russell's chapter examines the ways in which John Keats's sensuous 'fine excess' continued to be 16 Romanticism and Religion from William ...
Page 20
... experience of the divine' (The Idol and Distance: Five Studies, trans. Thomas A. Carlson (New York: Fordham University Press, 2001), p. 6). 8 The formulation 'God “without” being' alludes to Jean-Luc Marion's important work Dieu sans l ...
... experience of the divine' (The Idol and Distance: Five Studies, trans. Thomas A. Carlson (New York: Fordham University Press, 2001), p. 6). 8 The formulation 'God “without” being' alludes to Jean-Luc Marion's important work Dieu sans l ...
Contents
1 | |
Milton and the Romantic Visionary | 25 |
Self Nature Society | 41 |
Wordsworths Faithful Scepticism | 57 |
Southey Coleridge and English Romantic Anxieties | 75 |
Byron and Atonement | 93 |
Byron Thomas Chalmers and the Scottish Religious Heritage | 107 |
7 Byrons Confessional Pilgrimage | 121 |
Scepticism and the Voice of Poetry in Byrons Cain | 155 |
Ghostly Closure and Comic Continuity | 167 |
Hopkins Keats and the Gratuity of Grace | 181 |
Percy Bysshe Shelley after Postmodern Theology | 191 |
13 Sacred Art and Profane Poets | 207 |
Stevenss Esthétique du Mal Evil and the Romantic Imagination | 223 |
Bibliography | 237 |
Index | 255 |
Other editions - View all
Romanticism and Religion from William Cowper to Wallace Stevens Gavin Hopps,Jane Stabler Limited preview - 2006 |
Romanticism and Religion from William Cowper to Wallace Stevens Dr Gavin Hopps,Dr Jane Stabler Limited preview - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
according angels appears approach argues attempt become belief Book Byron Cain Catholic Catholicism Chalmers chapter Childe Christian Church claim close Coleridge Complete concerned confession course Cowper criticism darkness death describes divine Don Juan England English essay evil example existence experience expression fact faith fall feeling figure final fragments grace hand Harold heaven human imagination interest Italy John Keats kind language less Letters light lines London look matter meaning Milton mind moral nature notes offers once opening Oxford perhaps philosophy play poem poet poetic poetry political possible postmodern present question reader reading references relation relationship religion religious represents response Romantic Romanticism scepticism secular seems seen sense Shelley Shelley’s Southey speak spirit suffering suggests theological things thought tradition truth turn University Press vision vols Wordsworth writing