The Soul in British Romanticism provides a history of the modern concept of the human and the nas... more The Soul in British Romanticism provides a history of the modern concept of the human and the nascence of the human sciences during the long eighteenth century as well as a theory of Romantic poetry. The book investigates the forms and functions of the human soul from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century: during the Enlightenment, the traditional notion of an immortal and immaterial soul was replaced by immanent concepts such as vitalism, the nervous system and the brain. In the course of this development, the key faculties associated with the soul – transcendence, immortality and imagination – were increasingly negotiated in poetry. Thus, the transformation of the soul, leading to a fundamentally new and different understanding of what it is to be human, also created a new conception of the medium of literature. Romantic poetry tries to recapture the lost qualities of the human soul in and through the creative imagination whichbecomes the essence of poetry and a warranty of art’s transcendence and immortality. On the other hand, this triggers a reflection on the immanent and material basis of poetry because, paradoxically, the constant reference to transcendence in immanence ultimately leads to a profound reflection on language, texture and on the materiality of the medium of poetry. Through this medial self-reflexivity, Romantic poetry becomes the first form of modern literature.
‘Discovering the Human’ investigates the emergence of the modern human sciences and their impact ... more ‘Discovering the Human’ investigates the emergence of the modern human sciences and their impact on literature, art and other media in the 18th and 19th centuries. Up until the 1830s, science and culture were part of a joint endeavour to discover and explore the secret of life. The question ‘What is life?’ unites science and the arts during the Ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism, and at the end of the Romantic period, a shift of focus from the human as an organic whole to the specialized disciplines signals the dawning of modernity. The emphasis of the edited collection is threefold: the first part sheds light on the human in art and science in the Age of Enlightenment, the second part is concerned with the transitions taking place at the turn of the 19th century. The chapters forming the third part investigate the impact of different media on the concept of the human in science, literature and film.
This essay argues that the emergence of the narrow sense of British Romanticism, which prevailed ... more This essay argues that the emergence of the narrow sense of British Romanticism, which prevailed in Romantic Studies up until the 1980s, can be attributed to historicist thinking. Thomas Carlyle's essay "Signs of the Times" (1829) and his early (and only) novel Sartor Resartus (1836) bear witness to the origins of thinking about literature in terms of literary ages. In a conservative fashion, these texts present an image of Romanticism that concentrates solely on subjectivity, creativity, genius, and the imagination. This portrayal omits other characteristics that were instrumental in defining the era, and crucially overlooks female authors. With the emergence of historicism, a vibrant intellectual environment is thus reduced to a narrow set of aesthetic features.
Adrian Duncan's second novel A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) marks a departure from 'typical' Iris... more Adrian Duncan's second novel A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) marks a departure from 'typical' Irish topics such as national identity and religion. This he shares with a range of contemporary Irish authors, particularly those writing in the aftermath of the Celtic-Tiger years. The novel's focus on architecture and engineering, which also looms large in Duncan's other novels Love Notes from a German Building Site and The Geometer Lobachevsky, is unique, as it leads to unusual reflections on the nature of material culture. This original approach to the novel form should be considered as part of the current international trend to integrate theoretical reflections on a wide range of topics, thus negotiating contemporary cultures of knowledge. The novel is also a reflection on the collapse of old systems, be they political, social, or epistemological, and the existential uncertainty created by their demise. I argue in my paper that Duncan's novel addresses questions of knowledge formation that bear a striking resemblance to the Romantic novel as an open and generically hybrid form. I read it in a wider context as part of an ongoing experience of crisis: my overall thesis aims at describing the contemporary tendency to include abstract reflections that interrupt the narrative sequence as an expression of a fundamental crisis of knowledge. Today's mediascape represents the contemporary world in a state of severe emergency, whose symptoms, be they climate change, the rise of nationalism and the far right, ultimately lead to a fundamental experience of contingency. Novels like Duncan's can thus be seen as an expression of the crisis of the contemporary media ecology of knowledge.
This chapter investigates the temporality of the soul in the Romantic period. Just like tradition... more This chapter investigates the temporality of the soul in the Romantic period. Just like traditional concepts of the soul, time oscillates between immanence and transcendence: an immanent transient temporality, on the one hand, and transcendent notions of eternity, on the other. Whereas the latter are often associated with religion, theology, and philosophy, the former is connected to history and historicism. Taking its cue from the similarities and di erences of the concepts of time and history in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Benedict Anderson, the chapter argues that Romantic poetry is likewise characterised by this tension between immanence and transcendence expressed by these two twentieth-century authors. This is particularly the case in poems in which the soul is the main trope and symbol. The chapter concludes with an analysis of two poems shaped by the con icting conception of time: William Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality and Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Both poems, the chapter argues, are ultimately characterised by an immanence that borders on pessimism-even Wordsworth's poem, which is usually read in a much more optimistic and positive manner.
The Soul in British Romanticism provides a history of the modern concept of the human and the nas... more The Soul in British Romanticism provides a history of the modern concept of the human and the nascence of the human sciences during the long eighteenth century as well as a theory of Romantic poetry. The book investigates the forms and functions of the human soul from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century: during the Enlightenment, the traditional notion of an immortal and immaterial soul was replaced by immanent concepts such as vitalism, the nervous system and the brain. In the course of this development, the key faculties associated with the soul – transcendence, immortality and imagination – were increasingly negotiated in poetry. Thus, the transformation of the soul, leading to a fundamentally new and different understanding of what it is to be human, also created a new conception of the medium of literature. Romantic poetry tries to recapture the lost qualities of the human soul in and through the creative imagination whichbecomes the essence of poetry and a warranty of art’s transcendence and immortality. On the other hand, this triggers a reflection on the immanent and material basis of poetry because, paradoxically, the constant reference to transcendence in immanence ultimately leads to a profound reflection on language, texture and on the materiality of the medium of poetry. Through this medial self-reflexivity, Romantic poetry becomes the first form of modern literature.
‘Discovering the Human’ investigates the emergence of the modern human sciences and their impact ... more ‘Discovering the Human’ investigates the emergence of the modern human sciences and their impact on literature, art and other media in the 18th and 19th centuries. Up until the 1830s, science and culture were part of a joint endeavour to discover and explore the secret of life. The question ‘What is life?’ unites science and the arts during the Ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism, and at the end of the Romantic period, a shift of focus from the human as an organic whole to the specialized disciplines signals the dawning of modernity. The emphasis of the edited collection is threefold: the first part sheds light on the human in art and science in the Age of Enlightenment, the second part is concerned with the transitions taking place at the turn of the 19th century. The chapters forming the third part investigate the impact of different media on the concept of the human in science, literature and film.
This essay argues that the emergence of the narrow sense of British Romanticism, which prevailed ... more This essay argues that the emergence of the narrow sense of British Romanticism, which prevailed in Romantic Studies up until the 1980s, can be attributed to historicist thinking. Thomas Carlyle's essay "Signs of the Times" (1829) and his early (and only) novel Sartor Resartus (1836) bear witness to the origins of thinking about literature in terms of literary ages. In a conservative fashion, these texts present an image of Romanticism that concentrates solely on subjectivity, creativity, genius, and the imagination. This portrayal omits other characteristics that were instrumental in defining the era, and crucially overlooks female authors. With the emergence of historicism, a vibrant intellectual environment is thus reduced to a narrow set of aesthetic features.
Adrian Duncan's second novel A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) marks a departure from 'typical' Iris... more Adrian Duncan's second novel A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) marks a departure from 'typical' Irish topics such as national identity and religion. This he shares with a range of contemporary Irish authors, particularly those writing in the aftermath of the Celtic-Tiger years. The novel's focus on architecture and engineering, which also looms large in Duncan's other novels Love Notes from a German Building Site and The Geometer Lobachevsky, is unique, as it leads to unusual reflections on the nature of material culture. This original approach to the novel form should be considered as part of the current international trend to integrate theoretical reflections on a wide range of topics, thus negotiating contemporary cultures of knowledge. The novel is also a reflection on the collapse of old systems, be they political, social, or epistemological, and the existential uncertainty created by their demise. I argue in my paper that Duncan's novel addresses questions of knowledge formation that bear a striking resemblance to the Romantic novel as an open and generically hybrid form. I read it in a wider context as part of an ongoing experience of crisis: my overall thesis aims at describing the contemporary tendency to include abstract reflections that interrupt the narrative sequence as an expression of a fundamental crisis of knowledge. Today's mediascape represents the contemporary world in a state of severe emergency, whose symptoms, be they climate change, the rise of nationalism and the far right, ultimately lead to a fundamental experience of contingency. Novels like Duncan's can thus be seen as an expression of the crisis of the contemporary media ecology of knowledge.
This chapter investigates the temporality of the soul in the Romantic period. Just like tradition... more This chapter investigates the temporality of the soul in the Romantic period. Just like traditional concepts of the soul, time oscillates between immanence and transcendence: an immanent transient temporality, on the one hand, and transcendent notions of eternity, on the other. Whereas the latter are often associated with religion, theology, and philosophy, the former is connected to history and historicism. Taking its cue from the similarities and di erences of the concepts of time and history in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Benedict Anderson, the chapter argues that Romantic poetry is likewise characterised by this tension between immanence and transcendence expressed by these two twentieth-century authors. This is particularly the case in poems in which the soul is the main trope and symbol. The chapter concludes with an analysis of two poems shaped by the con icting conception of time: William Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality and Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Both poems, the chapter argues, are ultimately characterised by an immanence that borders on pessimism-even Wordsworth's poem, which is usually read in a much more optimistic and positive manner.
This article investigates literature from the vantage point of media theory. The text I analyse a... more This article investigates literature from the vantage point of media theory. The text I analyse and use as my example is T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, a highly philosophical and self-reflexive poem which is, however, not explicitly concerned with new media technology or the transmission, storage, and processing of information. Cultural techniques, media theory, and network theory will serve as the theoretical background against which I will flesh out the non-technological and philosophical implications of mediation as discussed and theorised in the poem itself. Thus, the main aim will be to foreground the work's own aesthetic foundations as media theory or, more precisely, as a theory of mediation depending on a set of cultural techniques. In order to achieve this, the article looks at literature as a medium that reflects on its dependence on a material entity and on its place within a diachronic and synchronic media network.
Performance theory has a long and complex history. Initiated by J. L. Austin’s How To Do Things W... more Performance theory has a long and complex history. Initiated by J. L. Austin’s How To Do Things With Words, it has been critically discussed by Émile Benveniste, Jacques Derrida, and Paul de Man among others. Most recently, media studies and the concept of cultural techniques have added yet another facet to what originated in speech act theory. Although poetry with its musical dimension seems especially prone to be investigated in the field, this is rarely the case. After an overview of the relevant theoretical developments, I analyze William Butler Yeats’s “Among School Children” – with a special focus on its final verse “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” – as a powerful reflection on the performative nature of poetry in general.
Narrating Loss. Representations of Mourning, Nostalgia and Melancholia in Contemporary Anglophone Fictions, ed. Brigitte Glaser & Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, 2014., 2014
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