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Creature and Creator
This book is the first systematic study of the creation myth as a Romantic form. In the hands of Blake, the Shelleys, Byron, and Keats, the creation myth became a sophisticated and paradigmatically modern genre, permitting the English Romantics to re-examine and revolutionize the traditional conception of man's nature and origins as it had been embodied in Biblical and classical myths.
Professor Cantor begins by discussing Rousseau's rethinking of human origins in his Second Discourse. By portraying man's development as the result of an accidental concatenation of blind material forces and his own actions, Rousseau undermined the traditional religious orthodoxy which saw man as God's immutable handiwork. Man became instead both creature and creator, and thereby assumed the traditional prerogatives of God. Focusing on Blake's The Book of Urizen and The Four Zoas, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Byron's Cain, and Keat's Hyperion poems, the book explores Romantic myth-makers' dreams of the creator in man remaking the creature into something divine. But as the Romantic creation myth developed, a dark side to human creativity began to emerge, reflected in the nightmare vision of Frankenstein and revealed in the loneliness and tragic suffering of the isolated creative ego in Cain and the Hyperion poems.
Paul Cantor has written a facinating case study in the interrelation of philosophy and literature. Revealing the range, depth, and complexity of Romantic myth-making, his book will be essential reading for all serious students of English Romantic literature.
Professor Cantor begins by discussing Rousseau's rethinking of human origins in his Second Discourse. By portraying man's development as the result of an accidental concatenation of blind material forces and his own actions, Rousseau undermined the traditional religious orthodoxy which saw man as God's immutable handiwork. Man became instead both creature and creator, and thereby assumed the traditional prerogatives of God. Focusing on Blake's The Book of Urizen and The Four Zoas, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Byron's Cain, and Keat's Hyperion poems, the book explores Romantic myth-makers' dreams of the creator in man remaking the creature into something divine. But as the Romantic creation myth developed, a dark side to human creativity began to emerge, reflected in the nightmare vision of Frankenstein and revealed in the loneliness and tragic suffering of the isolated creative ego in Cain and the Hyperion poems.
Paul Cantor has written a facinating case study in the interrelation of philosophy and literature. Revealing the range, depth, and complexity of Romantic myth-making, his book will be essential reading for all serious students of English Romantic literature.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 1984
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June 27, 2023
"By looking back at Romantic creation myths from the perspective of the twentieth century, we can see that just when poets like Shelley and Keats abandoned their efforts at shaping a cosmic myth, they were on the verge of articulating a truly modern understanding of the horizons of human life, one which grounds an ideal of human freedom and autonomy in a vision of an infinite and open-ended universe..." (pg. 192, "Creature and Creator: Myth-making and English Romanticism").
The above selection from Paul Cantor's essential tome concerning the myth making enterprise engaged in by the Romantic poets of the 19th century (Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats) offers a clear illustration of the scope and breadth of this wonderful exploration of Romantic poets and their 'project' vis a vis Jean-Jacques Rousseau. For this book, in three discrete units ("Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained", "The Romantic Prometheus", and "The Loss of Eternity"), the reader experiences a truly deep and profound exploration of the main Romantic poets of the period in regards to their relationship to the Rousseau's "Second Discourse." The latter is explained in a clear and easy to understand manner and provides a perfect template by which the efforts of the poets in question's works are evaluated and analyzed. Additionally, the explication of these works is detailed and acutely rendered yet it does not get bogged down in minutiae like some more tedious efforts of the genre. One is left, as one makes one's way through the text, with the idea of being, like Dante's pilgrim, of being escorted through the 'afterlife' of the Romantic mythical poem by a gentle yet extremely knowledgeable mentor/guide that knows all, yet reveals with kindness and grace. This is a truly fine book, perfect for newcomers to the field as well as experts dipping into depths previously explored.
The above selection from Paul Cantor's essential tome concerning the myth making enterprise engaged in by the Romantic poets of the 19th century (Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, John Keats) offers a clear illustration of the scope and breadth of this wonderful exploration of Romantic poets and their 'project' vis a vis Jean-Jacques Rousseau. For this book, in three discrete units ("Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained", "The Romantic Prometheus", and "The Loss of Eternity"), the reader experiences a truly deep and profound exploration of the main Romantic poets of the period in regards to their relationship to the Rousseau's "Second Discourse." The latter is explained in a clear and easy to understand manner and provides a perfect template by which the efforts of the poets in question's works are evaluated and analyzed. Additionally, the explication of these works is detailed and acutely rendered yet it does not get bogged down in minutiae like some more tedious efforts of the genre. One is left, as one makes one's way through the text, with the idea of being, like Dante's pilgrim, of being escorted through the 'afterlife' of the Romantic mythical poem by a gentle yet extremely knowledgeable mentor/guide that knows all, yet reveals with kindness and grace. This is a truly fine book, perfect for newcomers to the field as well as experts dipping into depths previously explored.
Displaying 1 of 1 review