John Keats

ISBN-13: 9780333994498 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 164 str.

John Whale

Opis

This study offers an approachable reassessment of Keats' writing with particular emphasis on gender identity and sexuality. John Whale locates Keats' poetry and letters in his contemporary friendship groupings and forms of masculinity. Whale addresses all the major poems, gives due prominence to the letters, and provides a case for understanding the role played by many lesser known poems, thereby offering a new understanding of Keats' exploration of poetry, love and desire.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements.- Abbreviations.- 'Modern Love'.- Epic Abstraction.- Narrating Romance: 'Isabella', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci', 'The Eve of St Agnes', and 'Lamia'.- Endearing Addresses: The Odes.- Corresponding Selves: Keats's Letters.- Conclusion.- Index.

O autorze

JOHN WHALE is Professor of Romantic Literature at the University of Leeds. He is a former president of The British Association for Romantic Studies and his publications include Imagination under Pressure 1789-1832, Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France and Beyond Romanticism: New Approaches to Texts and Contexts 1780-1832 (with Stephen Copley).

Blurb

This book offers an exciting reassessment of Keats with particular emphasis on gender identity and sexuality. Traditionally, Keats has been more readily associated with the 'feminine' than any other canonical male English poet. This feminization was always likely, given his tragically early death and the mythologizing which took place soon after. In contrast, John Whale explores Keats's writings from the perspective of masculinity and gender by placing them in the context of contemporary friendship groupings and coterie relationships.

Whale addresses all the major poems and gives due prominence to the letters. In so doing, he offers a new understanding of Keats's exploration of poetry, gender and desire, and provides an extended analysis of Keats's quest for poetic fame in the face of the often conflicting forces of love and sexuality.

Clear, concise and insightful, this is an essential guide to one of the best-known Romantic poets.