Transgressive Romanticism

Transgressive Romanticism
Author: Larry H. Peer
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2018-04-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1527510387

Romanticism is an intuitive grasp of the self and the other in an interdependent imperative, non-systematic, transcendent, radically individuated, and endlessly interconnective. The set of norms Romanticism represents and broadcasts, therefore, lends itself particularly well to interdisciplinary and cross-linguistic study, essentially demanding a view coming from and constructed out of more than one discourse field. These norms radically transgress not only the cultural and literary inheritance of thinkers and artists beginning in the late eighteenth century, but do so in a transnational and comparative way unique in Western history. This collection of essays, bringing together established scholars and newer academic voices, offers fresh perspectives on what Romanticism thought itself to be by suggesting spaces in Romanticism studies needing negotiation and elaboration. Presenting a protocol that escapes the circular referentiality of Romanticism studies typically limited to one academic discipline or one language area, this volume works through topics and ideas including Hegelian reflections, lyric poetry, stage drama, music, political implications, and even vampires, outlaws and zombies.

Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft

Transgressive Theatricality, Romanticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft
Author: Professor Lisa Plummer Crafton
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1409479056

Throughout her works, Mary Wollstonecraft interrogates and represents the connected network of theater, culture, and self-representation, in what Lisa Plummer Crafton argues is a conscious appropriation of theater in its literal, cultural, and figurative dimensions. Situating Wollstonecraft within early Romantic debates about theatricality, she explores Wollstonecraft's appropriation of, immersion in, and contributions to these debates within the contexts of philosophical arguments about the utility of theater and spectacle; the political discourse of the French Revolution; juridical transcripts of treason and civil divorce trials; and the spectacle of the female actress in performance, as typified by Sarah Siddons and her compelling connections to Wollstonecraft on and off stage. As she considers Wollstonecraft's contributions to competing notions of the theatrical, from the writer's earliest literary reviews and translations through her histories, correspondence, nonfiction, and novels, Crafton traces the trajectory of Wollstonecraft's conscious appropriation of the trope and her emphasis on theatricality's transgressive potential for self-invention. Crafton's book, the first wide-ranging study of theatricality in the works of Wollstonecraft, is an important contribution to current reconsiderations of the earlier received wisdom about Romantic anti-theatricality, to historicist revisions of the performance and theory of Sarah Siddons, and to theories of spectacle and gender.

E. T. A. Hoffmann

E. T. A. Hoffmann
Author: Christopher R. Clason
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1786948745

The essays in this volume address a very broad range of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s most significant works, examining them through the lens of “transgression.” His writings, perhaps more than those of any other German Romantic, portrayed the “dark side” of existence, which the following essays investigate for an Anglophone audience.

Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt
Author: Beate I. Allert
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2023-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612498302

Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World provides an interdisciplinary exploration into Humboldt’s approach to seeing and describing the many subjects he pursued. Though remembered primarily as an environmental thinker, Humboldt’s interests were vast and documented not just in his published works, but also in his extensive correspondence with scientists, artists, poets, and philosophers internationally. Perceiving the World covers Humboldt’s perceptions during intercontinental travels and scientific discoveries, as well as how he visualized nature, geography, environments, and diverse cultures, including Indigenous Peoples. This collection draws heavily on the English translations of Humboldt’s work housed in the Purdue University Archives, which were collected by John Purdue. The book is divided into three parts: Humboldt’s contributions to science since the nineteenth century; his work on nature, climates, environments, and the cosmos; and his lasting cultural impact, including his imaging techniques, modes of visual presentation, and contributions to the arts. Humboldt’s intricate approach to perception still resonates today, as his nuanced and unique way of seeing the world was just as important as what he wrote.

The Descent of the Imagination

The Descent of the Imagination
Author: Kevin Z. Moore
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 436
Release: 1993-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0814754996

The Descent of the Imagination places Thomas Hardy's writing within the context of nineteenth-century fiction writing as a genre. Moore therefore regards his examination of Hardy's work as a form of archaeology as well as a genealogy of the romantic figure in fiction, from Wordsworth through Hardy. The book provides a new interpretation of Hardy's method of composition and uses new source material that will interest Hardy scholars. It offers an original view of the novelist that argues that his work, especially his later writings, were a deliberate rewriting of romanticism.

Wild Romanticism

Wild Romanticism
Author: Markus Poetzsch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000380416

Wild Romanticism consolidates contemporary thinking about conceptions of the wild in British and European Romanticism, clarifying the emergence of wilderness as a cultural, symbolic, and ecological idea. This volume brings together the work of twelve scholars, who examine representations of wildness in canonical texts such as Frankenstein, Northanger Abbey, "Kubla Khan," "Expostulation and Reply," and Childe Harold ́s Pilgrimage, as well as lesser-known works by Radcliffe, Clare, Hölderlin, P.B. Shelley, and Hogg. Celebrating the wild provided Romantic-period authors with a way of thinking about nature that resists instrumentalization and anthropocentricism, but writing about wilderness also engaged them in debates about the sublime and picturesque as aesthetic categories, about gender and the cultivation of independence as natural, and about the ability of natural forces to resist categorical or literal enclosure. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Romanticism, environmental literature, environmental history, and the environmental humanities more broadly.

Romanticism and Postmodernism

Romanticism and Postmodernism
Author: Edward Larrissy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 1999-08-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780521642729

The persistence of Romantic thought and literary practice into the late twentieth century is evident in many contexts, from the philosophical and ideological abstractions of literary theory to the thematic and formal preoccupations of contemporary fiction and poetry. Though the precise meaning of the Romantic legacy is contested, it remains stubbornly difficult to move beyond. This collection of essays by prominent critics and literary theorists was first published in 1999, and explores the continuing impact of Romanticism on a variety of authors and genres, including John Barth, William Gibson, and John Ashbery, while writers from the Romantic and Victorian period include Wordsworth, Byron and Emily Brontë. Many critics have assumed that the forms and modes of feeling associated with the Romantic period continued to influence the cultural history of the the first half of the twentieth century. This was the first book to consider the mutual impact of postmodernism and Romanticism.

Motherless Creations

Motherless Creations
Author: Wendy C. Nielsen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2022-05-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000582418

This book explains the elimination of maternal characters in American, British, French, and German literature before 1890 by examining motherless creations: Pygmalion’s statue, Frankenstein’s creature, homunculi, automata, androids, golems, and steam men. These beings typify what is now called artificial life, living systems made through manufactured means. Fantasies about creating life ex-utero were built upon misconceptions about how life began, sustaining pseudoscientific beliefs about the birthing body. Physicians, inventors, and authors of literature imagined generating life without women to control the process of reproduction and generate perfect progeny. Thus, some speculative fiction before 1890 belongs to the literary genealogy of transhumanism, the belief that technology will someday transform some humans into superior, immortal beings. Female motherless creations tend to operate as sexual companions. Male ones often emerge as subaltern figures analogous to enslaved beings, illustrating that reproductive rights inform readers’ sense of who counts as human in fictions of artificial life.

Animals, Machines, and AI

Animals, Machines, and AI
Author: Erika Quinn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2021-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3110753731

Sentient animals, machines, and robots abound in German literature and culture, but there has been surprisingly limited scholarship on non-human life forms in German studies. This volume extends interdisciplinary research in emotion studies to examine non-humans and the affective relationships between humans and non-humans in modern German cultural history. In recent years, fascination with emotions, developments in robotics, and the burgeoning of animal studies in and beyond the academy have given rise to questions about the nature of humanity. Using sources from the life sciences, literature, visual art, poetry, philosophy, and photography, this collection interrogates not animal or machine emotions per se, but rather uses animals and machines as lenses through which to investigate human emotions and the affective entanglements between humans and non-humans. The COVID-19 pandemic made us more keenly aware of the importance of both animals and new technologies in our daily lives, and this volume ultimately sheds light on the centrality of non-humans in the human emotional world and the possibilities that relationships with non-humans offer for enriching that world. Watch our talk with the editors Erika Quinn and Holly Yanacek here: https://youtu.be/RBMwXah_Om8

The Paradox of Transgression in Games

The Paradox of Transgression in Games
Author: Torill Mortensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2020-02-24
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1000049531

The Paradox of Transgression in Games looks at transgressive games as an aesthetic experience, tackling how players respond to game content that shocks, disturbs, and distresses, and how contemporary video games can evoke intense emotional reactions. The book delves into the commercial success of many controversial videogames: although such games may appear shocking for the observing bystander, playing them is experienced as deeply rewarding for the player. Drawing on qualitative player studies and approaches from media aesthetics theory, the book challenges the perception of games as innocent entertainment, and examines the range of emotional, moral, and intellectual experiences of players. As they explore what players consider transgressive, the authors ask whether there is something about the gameplay situation that works to mitigate the sense of transgression, stressing gameplay as an aesthetic experience. Anchoring the aesthetic game experience both in play studies as well as in aesthetic theory, this book will be an essential resource for scholars and students of game studies, aesthetics, media studies, philosophy of art, and emotions.