Reading Public Romanticism

Paul Magnuson

Published by Princeton University Press 1998

Reading Public Romanticism

Paul Magnuson

Volume 391 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864799

Overview
Contents

About this book

Reading Public Romanticism is a significant new example of the linking of esthetics and historical criticism. Here Paul Magnuson locates Romantic poetry within a public discourse that combines politics and esthetics, nationalism and domesticity, sexuality and morality, law and legitimacy. Building on his well-regarded previous work, Magnuson practices a methodology of close historical reading by identifying precise versions of poems, reading their rhetoric of allusion and quotation in the contexts of their original publication, and describing their public genres, such as the letter. He studies the author's public signature or motto, the forms and significance of address used in poems, and the resonances of poetic language and tropes in the public debates.

According to Magnuson, "reading locations" means reading the writing that surrounds a poem, the "paratext" or "frame" of the esthetic boundary. In their particular locations in the public discourse, romantic poems are illocutionary speech acts that take a stand on public issues and legitimate their authors both as public characters and as writers. He traces the public significance of canonical poems commonly considered as lyrics with little explicit social or political commentary, including Wordsworth's "Immortality Ode"; Coleridge's "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," "Frost at Midnight," and "The Ancient Mariner"; and Keats's "On a Grecian Urn." He also positions Byron's Dedication to Don Juan in the debates over Southey's laureateship and claims for poetic authority and legitimacy. Reading Public Romanticism is a thoughtful and revealing work.

Originally published in 1998.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations and Key Words Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER One. The Corresponding Society: The Public Discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
CHAPTER Two. The Corresponding Society: Reading the Correspondence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
CHAPTER Three. The Politics of “Frost at Midnight” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
CHAPTER Four. The Mariner's Extravagance and the Tempests of Lyrical Ballads Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
CHAPTER Five. The Dedication of Don Juan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
CHAPTER Six. Keats's “Leaf-Fringed Legend” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211

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