Romantic Satanism : myth and the historical moment in Blake, Shelley, and Byron

Criticism Has Largely Emphasised The Private Meaning Of 'romantic Satanism', Treating It As The Celebration Of Subjectivity Through Allusions To Paradise Lost That Voice Satan's Solitary Defiance. The First Full-length Treatment Of Its Subject, Romantic Satanism Explores This Literary Phenomenon As A Socially Produced Myth Exhibiting The Response Of Writers To Their Milieu . Through Contextualized Readings Of The Major Works Of Blake, Shelley, And Byron, This Book Demonstrates That Satanism Enabled Romantic Writers To Interpret Their Tempestuous Age: It Provided Them A Mythic Medium For Articulating The Hopes And Fears Their Age Aroused, For Prophesying And Inducing Change. "Criticism has largely emphasized the private meaning of 'Romantic Satanism, ' treating it as the celebration of subjectivity through allusions to Paradise Lost that appropriate Satan's defiant declaration, 'the mind is its own place.' The first full-length treatment of its subject, Romantic Satanism explores this literary phenomenon as a socially produced myth exhibiting the response of writers to their milieu, Jacobinism, the imperial ambitions of Napoleon, plebeian blasphemy, the threat of civil insurrection during the Regency - these portentous forces and events demanded answerable mythic embodiments to render them intelligible and to shape public opinion. In their work, the major writers of the era transformed the religious myth of the adversary into a new fiction - flexible, radically ambiguous, and open to artistic and ideologically charged adaptation. Through contextualized readings of the major works of Blake, Shelley, and Byron, this new study demonstrates that Satanism enabled Romantic writers to interpret their tempestuous day: it provided them with a mythic medium for articulating the hopes and fears their age aroused, for prophesying and inducing change. Bringing current historical methods to bear on a central but overlooked topic, Romantic Satanism extends further the inquiry into Romantic 'myth-making' opened up by the work of Marilyn Butler and others."--Jacket. Criticism has largely emphasised the private meaning of "Romantic Satanism", treating it as the celebration of subjectivity through allusions to Paradise Lost that appropriate Satan's defiant declaration, "the mind has its own place". The first full-length treatment of its subject, Romantic Satanism explores this literary phenomenon as a socially produced myth exhibiting the response of writers to their milieu. Jacobinism, the imperial ambitions of Napoleon, plebian blasphemy, the threat of civil insurrection during the Regency - these portentous forces and events demanded answerable mythic embodiments to render them intelligible and to shape public opinion. In their work, the major writers of the era transformed the religious myth of the adversary into a new fiction - flexible, radically ambiguous, and open to artistic and ideologically charged adaptation. Through contextualised readings of the major works of Blake, Shelley and Byron, this new study demonstrates that Satanism enabled Romantic writers to interpret their tempestuous age: it provided them with a mythic medium for articulating the hopes and fears their age aroused, for prophesying and inducing change. Bringing current historical methods to bear on a central but overlooked topic, Romantic Satanism extends further the inquiry into Romantic "mythmaking" opened up by the work of Marilyn Butler and others Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-10 The Cultural Matrix of Romantic Satanism....Pages 11-40 Blake, the Son of Fire, and the God of this World....Pages 41-77 Base and Aristocratic Artificers of Ruin: Plebeian Blasphemy and the Satanic School....Pages 78-112 Savior and Avenger: Shelleyan Satanism and the Face of Change....Pages 113-142 Ironic Modes of Satanism in Byron and Shelley....Pages 143-169 Epilogue: The Ghost of Abel....Pages 170-175 Back Matter....Pages 176-213