Poetic Form and British Romanticism

by Stuart Curran

Across Europe, and particularly in Great Britain, the Romantic age coincided with a large-scale revival of lost literatures and the first attempts to create a coherent history of Western literature. Ranging with assurance across that history, Stuart Curran demonstrates that Romanticism, far
from being indifferent or hostile to the received forms of literature as popular caricature has held, was actually obsessed with them as repositories of literary conventions and conveyors of implicit logical of ideological value. Whether in their employment of fixed forms, which resulted in the
incomparable artistry of Romantic odes, or in their rethinking of major genres like the pastoral, the epic, and the romance that gave the movement its name, the Romantic poets transformed every element they touched to accord with a democratic, secular and skeptical ethos, a world view recognizably
modern in its dimensions.

Genres: Literary Criticism

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Ben]

Would not have chosen to read this. Has useful information I guess, but I absolutely detest this generic approach to literature.