Synopses & Reviews
Richard Gravil explores the relationship between works of the “American Renaissance,” in particular the works of the Transcendentalists, and British Romanticism, emphasizing the significance of the American Revolution to British writers and the role of Fenimore Cooper in the foundation of American literature. He focuses on the reception of Wordsworth and Coleridge by Emerson and Thoreau, Melville's reading of Coleridge and Whitman's transfiguration of Wordsworth, the response of Hawthorne and Poe to Coleridge and Keats, and the exceptional intertextuality of Emily Dickinson.
Review
"...a welcome and lively addition to and engagement with Robert Weisbuch's influential Atlantic Double-Cross..."--Bryan Waterman, The Wordsworth Circle
“...there are many fresh perceptions here about the complex interconnections of British and American Romanticism.” —European Romantic Review
“In Romantic Dialogues Richard Gravil carries his learning lightly, thinks deeply and writies invitingly...a major study.” —Symbiosis
"Learned, rigorous in testing its assertions, mordant and spirited in its expression, Romantic Dialogues makes an important claim...."--Robert Weisbuch, New England Quarterly
"Gravil's deft and learned application of key texts...powerfully challenge the easy presumption of an autochtonous American writing."--Kurt Eisen, American Literature
"Romantic Dialogues is a significant contribution that is certain to provoke ongoing dialogue of its own."--Kenneth M. Price, Romantic Circles Review
About the Author
Richard Gravil is Reader in Literary Studies at the University College of St. Mark and St. John.
Table of Contents
Part I: Revolution and Independence, 1779-1837 * The Anglo-American Revolution * Romantic Americas * Consanguinities and In(ter)dependence *
Part II: Redeeming the Promise of England, 1823-1862 * Fenimore Cooper and the Specter of Burke *
Nature,
Walden and the Lyric Dialogue of 1798/1802 * Romancing Romanticism: Hawthorne and Poe * The Whale and the Albatross * The Discharged Soldier and the Runaway Slave * Emily Dickinsons Imaginary Conversations