An epic-length poem without a determinable plan, and therefore remarkably accommodating of contingency, Byron's Don Juan is founded on a distinctly modern understanding of reality as a subjectively realizable potentiality. But just as traditional and novel literary forms can coexists with each other, so can existing and emergennt concepts of reality, however uneasily. In Don Juan the tension between this new concept of reality and that presupposed by the theory of artistic mimesis manifests itself in Byron's flouting of the same epic conventions to which he professes his adherence.
Copyright and permissions for the reuse of many of the images included in this publication differ from the above. This information is provided in the captions and in the list of illustrations.This book originates from an international conference on 'Romanticism and Time' held at the Université de Lille in November 2018 and organised jointly by the French Society for the Study of British Romanticism (SERA) and the Universités de Lille and Lorraine. Our warm thanks go to the SERA, who set this project in motion, and to the scientific committee of the Romanticism and Time conference,
The history of oneiroiogy may be divided into explanations of the causes of dreaming and interpretations of the content of dreams. Because these schools of thought are opposed to each other, the distinction between them can be used to falsify Kathleen Coburn's claim that Coleridge was a forerunner of Freud. Although both sought to bring the unconscious under the control of the conscious, rational mind, their oneirological approaches nonetheless differed fundamentally. Freud did not reject the etiological explanation of dreams, but his emphasis on unconscious rather than somatic and other external causes placed him at odds with earlier psychologists and imposed on him a hermeneutic burden of proof, consisting in establishing that dreams are wish-fulfillments even when they do not appear to be. Furthermore, his theory of symbolism had strong affinities with both ancient and Romantic oneirocriticism. Coleridge for his part found the traditional causal explanations of dreams inadequate, but habitually resorted to them anyway because he could not bring himself to interpret oneiric imagery-perhaps out of fear of what he might discover about himself.
Despite its widely acknowledged importance in and beyond the thought of the Romantic period, the distinctive concept of the symbol articulated by such writers as Goethe and F. W. J. Schelling in Germany and S. T. Coleridge in England has defied adequate historical explanation. This book provides an explanation by relating the content of Romantic symbolist theory — often criticized as irrationalist — to the cultural needs of its time. Because its genealogical method eschews a single disciplinary perspective, this book examines the Romantic concept of the symbol in a broader intellectual context than previous scholarship has done, a context ranging chronologically from classical antiquity to the present and encompassing literary criticism and theory, aesthetics, semiotics, theology, metaphysics, natural philosophy, astronomy, poetry, and the origins of landscape painting. The concept is thus revealed to be a specifically modern response to modern discontents, neither reverting to pre-modern modes of thought nor secularizing Christian theology, but countering Enlightenment dualisms with means bequeathed by the Enlightenment itself.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.