Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre Re-forming Literature 1789–1837

Romanticism has often been associated with lyric poetry, or otherwise confined within mainstream genres. As a result, we have neglected the sheer diversity and generic hybridity of a literature that ranged from the Gothic novel to the national tale, from monthly periodicals to fictionalized autobiography. In this new volume some of the leading scholars of the period explore the relationship between ideology and literary genre from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The introduction offers a fresh examination of how genre was rethought by Romantic criticism.

Romanticism has often been associated with the mode of lyric, or otherwise confined within mainstream genres. As a result, we have neglected the sheer diversity and generic hybridity of a literature that ranged from the Gothic novel to the national tale, from monthly periodicals to fictionalized autobiography. In this volume leading scholars of the period explore the ways in which the Romantics developed genre from a taxonomical given into a cultural category, so as to make it the scene of an ongoing struggle between fixed norms and new initiatives. Focusing on non-canonical writers (such as Thelwall, Godwin and the novelists of the 1790s), or placing authors such as Wordsworth and Byron in a non-canonical context, these essays explore the psychic and social politics of genre from a variety of theoretical perspectives, while the introduction looks at how genre itself was rethought by Romantic criticism.

Notes on contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction Tilottama Rajan and Julia M. Wright; Part I. Genre, History, and the Public Sphere: 1. Godwin and the genre reformers: on necessity and contingency in romantic narrative theory Jon Klancher; 2. Radical print culture in periodical form Kevin Gilmartin; 3. History, trauma, and the limits of the liberal imagination: William Godwin's historical fiction Gary Handwerk; 4. Writing on the border: the national tale, female writing, and the public sphere Ina Ferris; Part II. Genre and Society: 5. Genres from life in Wordsworth's art: Lyrical Ballads 1798 Don Bialostosky; 6. 'A voice in the representation': John Thelwall and the enfranchisement of literature Judith Thompson; 7. 'I am ill-fitted': conflicts of genre in Elisa Fenwick's Secresy Julia M. Wright; 8. Frankenstein as neo-Gothic: from the ghost of the couterfeit to the monster of abjection Jerrold E. Hogle; Part III. Genre, Gender, and the Private Sphere: 9. Autonarration and genotext in Mary Hays' Memoirs of Emma Courtney Tilottama Rajan; 10. 'The science of herself': scenes of female enlightenment Mary Jacobus; 11. The failures of romanticism Jerome McGann; Index.

In this volume some of the leading scholars of Romanticism explore the relationship between ideology and literary genre in the period, from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The introduction offers an examination of how genre was rethought by Romantic criticism.

Julia M. Wright is Professor of English at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.