Synopses & Reviews
For centuries, southern Europe, and Italy in particular, has offered writers far more than an evocative setting for important works of literature. The voyage south has been an integral part of the imagination of inspiration. Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the "art romance"--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality.
Siegel argues that Italy's allure derives not only from its celebrated promise of unique natural beauty and prized antiquities, but from the opportunity it offers writers to place themselves in relation to a web of prior accounts of travel to the native land of genius. Beginning with Goethe as the founding figure of the tradition, Haunted Museum moves from a rich reframing of literature from the first half of the nineteenth century--including new readings of works by Byron, de Staël, Barrett Browning, and others--to an ambitious examination of Henry James's well-known engagement with Europe, newly understood as a response to this important literary legacy. Readings of works by Freud, Forster, Mann, and Proust demonstrate the longevity of the tradition of looking to Italy for the representation of desires as impossible to satisfy as they are to deny.
Review
"Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the 'art romance'--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality."--Julien Desrochers, Fabula
Review
Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the 'art romance'--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality. -- Julien Desrochers, Fabula Haunted Museum offers a wide-ranging and imaginatively wrought genealogy of narratives surrounding voyages to the South of culture by canonical European and Anglo-America authors, reaching from Goethe through Forster, Proust, Mann, and Freud. -- Jennifer Scappettone, Modern Philology
Review
"Haunted Museum offers a wide-ranging and imaginatively wrought genealogy of narratives surrounding voyages to the South of culture by canonical European and Anglo-America authors, reaching from Goethe through Forster, Proust, Mann, and Freud."--Jennifer Scappettone, Modern Philology
Review
Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the 'art romance'--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality. Julien Desrochers
Review
Haunted Museum offers a wide-ranging and imaginatively wrought genealogy of narratives surrounding voyages to the South of culture by canonical European and Anglo-America authors, reaching from Goethe through Forster, Proust, Mann, and Freud. Fabula
Synopsis
For centuries, southern Europe, and Italy in particular, has offered writers far more than an evocative setting for important works of literature. The voyage south has been an integral part of the imagination of inspiration.
Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the "art romance"--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality.
Siegel argues that Italy's allure derives not only from its celebrated promise of unique natural beauty and prized antiquities, but from the opportunity it offers writers to place themselves in relation to a web of prior accounts of travel to the native land of genius. Beginning with Goethe as the founding figure of the tradition, Haunted Museum moves from a rich reframing of literature from the first half of the nineteenth century--including new readings of works by Byron, de Staël, Barrett Browning, and others--to an ambitious examination of Henry James's well-known engagement with Europe, newly understood as a response to this important literary legacy. Readings of works by Freud, Forster, Mann, and Proust demonstrate the longevity of the tradition of looking to Italy for the representation of desires as impossible to satisfy as they are to deny.
Synopsis
"This is a remarkably incisive and suggestive work of criticism, which transfigures an outwardly familiar literary and cultural history. As Siegel brings home the importance of the 'art romance' to a great range of literary careers, from Goethe through James, Freud, Proust, and Mann, he also makes the genre seem a crucial force in the shaping of modern desire."--James Eli Adams, Cornell University
Synopsis
"This is a remarkably incisive and suggestive work of criticism, which transfigures an outwardly familiar literary and cultural history. As Siegel brings home the importance of the 'art romance' to a great range of literary careers, from Goethe through James, Freud, Proust, and Mann, he also makes the genre seem a crucial force in the shaping of modern desire."--James Eli Adams, Cornell University
Synopsis
For centuries, southern Europe, and Italy in particular, has offered writers far more than an evocative setting for important works of literature. The voyage south has been an integral part of the imagination of inspiration.
Haunted Museum is a groundbreaking, in-depth look at fantasies of Italy from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, focusing on a literary tradition Jonah Siegel terms the "art romance"--the fantastic voyage south understood as the register of an ambivalent desire for art and a heightened experience of reality.
Siegel argues that Italy's allure derives not only from its celebrated promise of unique natural beauty and prized antiquities, but from the opportunity it offers writers to place themselves in relation to a web of prior accounts of travel to the native land of genius. Beginning with Goethe as the founding figure of the tradition, Haunted Museum moves from a rich reframing of literature from the first half of the nineteenth century--including new readings of works by Byron, de Staël, Barrett Browning, and others--to an ambitious examination of Henry James's well-known engagement with Europe, newly understood as a response to this important literary legacy. Readings of works by Freud, Forster, Mann, and Proust demonstrate the longevity of the tradition of looking to Italy for the representation of desires as impossible to satisfy as they are to deny.
Synopsis
"This is a remarkably incisive and suggestive work of criticism, which transfigures an outwardly familiar literary and cultural history. As Siegel brings home the importance of the 'art romance' to a great range of literary careers, from Goethe through James, Freud, Proust, and Mann, he also makes the genre seem a crucial force in the shaping of modern desire."--James Eli Adams, Cornell University
About the Author
Jonah Siegel, Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of "Desire and Excess: The Nineteenth-Century Culture of Art" (Princeton).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface: The Gesture Back xiii
INTORDUCTION: A Haunted Form 3
PART ONE: The Art Romance 19
CHAPTER 1: The Song of Mignon 21
CHAPTER 2: The Art-Romance Tradition 41
PART TWO: James in the Art Romance 83
CHAPTER 3: Henry James: Impossible Artists and the Pleasures of Patronage 85
CHAPTER 4: The Museum in the Romance: James with Hawthorne 113
CHAPTER 5: Speed, Desire, and the Museum: The Golden Bowl
as Art Romance 149
PART THREE: Learned Longing: Modernism and the End of the Art Romance 171
CHAPTER 6: Freud on the Road to Rome 173
CHAPTER 7: Speed, Romance, Desire: Forster, Proust, and Mann in Italy 195
APPENDIX: James, Freud, and the End of Romance 227
Notes 239
Index 275