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During the 1790s and 1800s, cultural critics became convinced that Britain was being "inundated" by pernicious literary translations imported from the European Continent. British Romanticism and Continental Influences discusses Romantic writers' complex and ambivalent responses to this threatening literary invasion. Confronted with foreign texts that seemed both attractive and repulsive, Mortensen argues, Romantic writers such as Wordsworth and Coleridge publicly distanced themselves from European sensationalism, even as they assimilated and revised its conventions in their own writing.
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British Romanticism and Continental Influences Writing in an Age of Europhobia
Peter Mortensen
British Romanticism and Continental Influences
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British Romanticism and Continental Influences Writing in an Age of Europhobia Peter Mortensen Associate Professor of English, Aarhus University
© Peter Mortensen 2004 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 1–4039–1515–6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mortensen, Peter, 1969– British romanticism and continental influences : writing in an age of europhobia / Peter Mortensen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–1515–6 (cloth) 1. English literature—European influences. 2. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. 3. European literature—Appreciation— Great Britain. 4. Literature, Comparative—English and European. 5. Literature, Comparative—European and English. 6. Romanticism— Great Britain. 7. Europe—In literature. 8. Romanticism—Europe. I. Title. PR129.E85M67 2004 820.9′145—dc22 10 13
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
vii
Acknowledgements Introduction: ‘Sickly and Stupid German Tragedies’
1
1 ‘We Know that the Enemy is Working among Us’: The Rhetoric of Romantic Europhobia From Burke to the Anti-Jacobin William Preston’s ‘Reflections’
19 19 33
2 ‘Dethroning German Sublimity’: Outrageous Stimulation in Romantic Ballad-Writing Stanley’s Leonora Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancyent Marinere’ Wordsworth’s ‘Hart-Leap Well’ Lewis’s Tales of Wonder
43 47 56 66 77
3 ‘Il Est Devenue Classique en Angleterre’: Some Versions of Romantic (Anti-)Pastoral Saint-Pierr