Creating Romanticism: Case Studies in the Literature, Science and Medicine of the 1790s (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print)

This book argues that the term 'Romanticism' should be more culturally-inclusive, recognizing the importance of scientific and medical ideas that helped shape some of the key concepts of the period, such as natural rights, the creative imagination and the sublime. This book argues that the term 'Romanticism' should be more culturally-inclusive, recognizing the importance of scientific and medical ideas that helped shape some of the key concepts of the period, such as natural rights, the creative imagination and the sublime. The book discusses a range of authors including Joanna Baillie, Edmund Burke, Erasmus Darwin, William Godwin, Joseph Priestly, Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft. Chapters look at these figures from a new perspective, using their journal articles, diaries, manuscript notebooks and poetry, as well as unpublished letters. Humphry Davy is given particular attention and his poetry and chemistry are explored as central to Romantic efforts in both poetry and science Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-27 Mary Wollstonecraft and Nature....Pages 28-62 William Godwin and the Imagination....Pages 63-96 Romantic Creation....Pages 97-131 Humphry Davy and the Sublime....Pages 132-174 Conclusion....Pages 175-177 Back Matter....Pages 178-218 This text argues that the term 'Romanticism' should be more culturally-inclusive, recognising the importance of scientific and medical ideas that helped shape some of the key concepts of the period, such as natural rights, the creative imagination and the sublime