British Romanticism and Continental Influences : Writing in an Age of Europhobia

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. During The 1790s And 1800s Cultural Critics Became Convinced That Britain Was Being 'flooded', 'deluged' Or 'inundated' By Pernicious Literary Translations Imported From The European Continent. Evoking A Rhetoric Of Paranoid Europhobia, British Wartime Commentators Routinely Stigmatized Popular Foreign Writers Like Burger, Schiller, Kotzebue And Rousseau Not Merely As Political Dissenters, But As Enemies Of All Civilization And Ultimately As Satanic Rebels Against God. British Romanticism And Continental Influences Discusses Some First-generation Romantic Writers' Ambivalent Responses To The Scandalous Products Of European Pre-romanticism. Celebrated Poets And Novelists Such As Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott And Austen Vocally Denounced Continental Texts And Writers For Deliberately Demoralizing Vulnerable British Readers. Yet, Paradoxically, The Same Prominent Figures (as Well As A Host Of Lesser Names) Also Flirted Dangerously With The Foreign, Borrowing Paraphernalia From Those Non-british Writers Whose Influence They Claimed To Counteract. This Book Centres On British Romantic Writers' Complex Transactions With Those Outlandish Texts Which Both Attracted And Repulsed Them, And Which They Both Imitated And Revised. Confronted With The Perceived Abominations Of Illicit And Non-conformist Writing, Mortensen Argues, The Romantic Writers Publicly Distanced Themselves From European Sensationalism, Even As They Assimilated Its Conventions In Their Own Discourse.--jacket. 'sickly And Stupid German Tragedies' -- 'we Know That The Enemy Is Working Among Us' : The Rhetoric Of Romantic Europhobia -- 'dethroning German Sublimity' : Outrageous Stimulation In Romantic Ballad-writing -- 'il Est Devenue Classique En Angleterre' : Some Versions Of Romantic (anti- )pastoral -- 'partizans Of The German Theatre' : The Poetics And Politics Of Romantic Dramatic Translation -- 'the Descent Of Odin' : Romantic Writers Among The Norsemen. Peter Mortensen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 208-224) And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction: ‘Sickly and Stupid German Tragedies’....Pages 1-18 ‘We Know that the Enemy is Working among Us’: The Rhetoric of Romantic Europhobia....Pages 19-42 ‘Dethroning German Sublimity’: Outrageous Stimulation in Romantic Ballad-Writing....Pages 43-94 ‘Il Est Devenue Classique en Angleterre’: Some Versions of Romantic (Anti-)Pastoral....Pages 95-133 ‘Partizans of the German Theatre’: The Poetics and Politics of Romantic Dramatic Translation....Pages 134-172 ‘The Descent of Odin’: Romantic Writers among the Norsemen....Pages 173-207 Back Matter....Pages 208-230