Romantic Ideology

by Jerome J. McGann

Claiming that the scholarship and criticism of Romanticism and its works have for too long been dominated by a Romantic ideology—by an uncritical absorption in Romanticism's own self-representations—Jerome J. McGann presents a new, critical view of the subject that calls for a radically revisionary reading of Romanticism. In the course of his study, McGann analyzes both the predominant theories of Romanticism (those deriving from Coleridge, Hegel, and Heine) and the products of its major English practitioners. Words worth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Byron are considered in greatest depth, but the entire movement is subjected to a searching critique. Arguing that poetry is produced and reproduced within concrete historical contexts and that criticism must take these contexts into account, McGann shows how the ideologies embodied in Romantic poetry and theory have shaped and distorted contemporary critical activities.

Genres: Romanticism, Nonfiction, Criticism, Literary Criticism, History, 19th Century, Poetry

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1985

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine that at the time this was written it would've been truly revolutionary, especially given what it says about reading and ideology in general. As it is, it's pretty good -- particularly in regard to what it claims about Romantic irony and Romantic art. Everyone now knows (well, I think everyone should know but I'm apparently a terrible barometer) that German Idealism's rise was concurrent with Romanticism, and that it involves positing (and prizing) a transhistorical sort of consciousness (linked to humanism) that was again connected with the power of the aesthetic -- hence our emphasis on 'the aesthetic' as a category today. What's illuminating in my opinion is the suggestion that Romantic art is self-critical -- and how it links into Romantic irony (which may not evidently take the form of irony that we're used to -- snark and snipe). His readings of the various Romantic poets are particularly illuminating in respect to this.

Lastly I must say that working and reproducing textual ideologies is something many in academia still do. So, although McGann wrote this in the 80's, not much has changed, mostly I think because the mode of production we're in supports uncriticality. As someone who is in academia right now (at least, as a PhD student) I am disappointed at the general lack of self-awareness with which many studies are carried out. People don't seem to be overly aware or concerned (if aware, they're not overly concerned... there is a certain resigned cynicism) about the historical roots of their beliefs about literature, but they should be, if only because unawareness or unconcern leads to open dialogue and a fightback against dogmatism, or petty factionalism. The book directly or indirectly (depending on how one reads it) calls for a new sort of criticism that does not quite involve critical distance -- this is something it struggles with itself -- the Dupin problem (as smartly laid out by Derrida in Le Facteur de la Verite). A new mode, if you will. And, like the Romantics it follows, always yet-to-come, though McGann doesn't ever talk about THIS displacement (what he says about the Romantics might very well be applied, interestingly though controversially, to much of Marxist philosophy).

Lastly, McGann is bright and sincere and all that, but I did find him -- at times -- a bit of a pain to read. He loves literature and this is evident. But his frustration with various scholars seems to translate into a sort of... tone of superiority... a stern schoolteacher nagging his bright but slightly misguided students. When he talks about poetry and reads poetry, he is superb. Ditto he is very good at thought. But alas, he CAN get somewhat annoying when talking about fellow critics. You have been warned. It's still worth your time though, if you are at all interested in Romantic literature. Read it.

[Kevin Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Works of literature neither produce nor reproduce themselves; only texts do that, which is merely to say that the idea of literature-as-text fetishizes works of art into passive objects, the consumer goods of a capitalized world. To return poetry to a human form--to see that what we read and study are poetic works produced and reproduced by numbers of specific men and women--is perhaps the most imperative task now facing the world of literary criticism. That purpose will only be fulfilled when literary critics, especially Marxist critics, cease reproducing texts and begin reproducing works of art." (McGann, pg. 160).

Arguing upon the Marxist premise that it is the means of production which determines the content and nature of the superstructure of society, University of Chicago professor Jerome J. McGann, in the brief yet stimulating tome "The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation," explores the world of Romantic poetry, early and late, with an intensity and perspicuity that is rarely equaled, in my experience, in the world of letters. Dividing his work into three discrete episodes, Dr. McGann initially delves into the theory espoused in Marx's "The German Ideology" concerning the elements that create ideology. Here he delineates the three types of Ideology, the French, where revolutionary ideas were based in social reality but formed of democratic-based concepts; the 'German' ideology, which asserts that it is 'Ideas' that form and create revolutionary ideas (left-Hegelian), and the 'critical' element or period, which asserts that it is the means of production which creates ideas or ideology. Professor McGann then proceeds to apply the latter school of thought (Marxist) to the main examples of Romantic poetry of the era 1784-1835. He does this by invoking the work of Heine, who himself critiqued Romanticism for a later, French audience in the 1830s. Utilizing this template (and after explaining Heine's ideas in great expository detail) McGann subsequently explores Romantic works as diverse as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" and Wordsworth's "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey." In fact, the good professor touches upon most of the main founding texts of Romanticism, especially the differences between late and early forms of Romanticism. And throughout this explicatory process, he does an exemplary job of revealing the hidden 'displacements' at the core of the Romantic ideology: the elevation of the work of poetry itself (and the self that produces it) into the 'transhistorical' field, a field that, according to McGann, is impossible for any cultural product to achieve. To this reader, the revelation of a hidden 'aporia' of this sort in the established canon is not a new revelation (the deconstructionists have jaded this reader into a blase' attitude when it comes to the disenchantment of the work of art), but the work is not a binary/simplistic reduction of art to its material substratum. Rather, this work reveals a real dynamic in the works in question whose revelation deserves careful consideration, for it is based, in my humble opinion, on a paradigmatic and true aspect of the Romantic 'project.' As such, this small book takes its place among the more paramount attempts to reveal important aspects of an essential school of literature (and literary criticism). (And the critique of the poems allow for a reacquaintance with literature whose excellence and 'primary' nature always allows for new fields of growth and appreciation.) For this reason, this book is to be recommended.

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 2 out of 5]

No matter how hard I tried to take this in, I found it impossible. Something about the way McGann writes is clunky and not compelling, and compared to most of the books on Romanticism I've read, this one didn't offer any kind of new insight. Focused heavily on Shelley and Byron, while also exploring Coleridge and Wordsworth, not a single female Romantic is mentioned, which was disappointing.