Description: This wide-ranging new history of European Romantic Literature presents a pan-European phenomenon which transcended national borders and contributed to a new sense of European cultural identity across the continent. Conceived in the same spirit as Madame de Staël's cultural and political agenda at a time when her 'generous idea' of Europe is being challenged on all sides, the volume pays close attention to the period's circulation of people, ideas, and texts. It proposes to rethink the period comparatively, focusing on various forms of cultural mediation and transfer, and on productive tensions, synchronicities, and interactions within and across borders. Organized chronologically, its twenty chapters address over five hundred works, proposing a coherent historical narrative without completely erasing individual nations' specificities. By showcasing in particular the place of Britain within continental culture, the volume hopes to reactivate critical examinations of Romanticism from a historicised European perspective.
Brief description: Patrick Vincent is Professor of English and American literature at the University of Neuchâtel. His research interests include Romantic-period landscape aesthetics, travel writing, and cultural exchanges. He is the author of The Romantic Poetess: European Culture, Politics and Gender, 1820-1840 (2004) and Romanticism, Republicanism, and the Swiss Myth (2023).
Review Quotes: 'A rich introduction to European Romanticism, this book will be useful to both novices and experts in the field ... Highly recommended.' D. D. Schierenbeck, CHOICE