Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism)

Confronts the racial and ethnic logics of the Oriental subject undergirding the development of Romantic poetics * Demonstrates how the construction of the modern lyric subject germinated during the Romantic period through the creation and invention of the “Oriental” subject * It analyses works by Romantic-era authors, including William Jones, Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Felicia Hemans, William Blake and Phillis Wheatley * Uses the concepts of “orientations” and “Orient” to provide fresh readings of British Romantic poetry What happens when we redirect our lines of reading along new lines, borders, and orientations—those that fail to fit neatly into the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West? What is, who stands for, and where exactly is the Orient" in British Romantic poetry? To where does the "Orient" lead? __Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation__ responds by tracing shifting orientations—cultural, geographical, aesthetic, racial, and gendered— through Orientalist sites, subjects, and settings. Kim coins the term "poetics of orientation" to describe a poetics newly aware of cultural difference as a site of aesthetic contestation. She focuses on the contestation that occurs at the site of the lyric subject. A "poetics of orientation", rather than situating the lyric subject in assumed racial whiteness, repositions the lyric subject within discussions of Orientalism and racial formation, tracing the white supremacist logics that have for too long been dismissed as inessential or nonconsequential to Romantic studies. h4Confronts the racial and ethnic logics of the Oriental subject undergirding the development of Romantic poetics/h4ulliDemonstrates how the construction of the modern lyric subject germinated during the Romantic period through the creation and invention of the “Oriental" subject/liliIt analyses works by Romantic-era authors, including William Jones, Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Felicia Hemans, William Blake and Phillis Wheatley/liliUses the concepts of “orientations" and “Orient" to provide fresh readings of British Romantic poetry/li/ulpWhat happens when we redirect our lines of reading along new lines, borders, and orientations—those that fail to fit neatly into the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West? What is, who stands for, and where exactly is the Orient" in British Romantic poetry? To where does the "Orient" lead? iRomanticism and the Poetics of Orientation/i responds by tracing shifting orientations—cultural, geographical, aesthetic, racial, and gendered— through Orientalist sites, subjects, and settings. Kim coins the term "poetics of orientation" to describe a poetics newly aware of cultural difference as a site of aesthetic contestation. She focuses on the contestation that occurs at the site of the lyric subject. A "poetics of orientation", rather than situating the lyric subject in assumed racial whiteness, repositions the lyric subject within discussions of Orientalism and racial formation, tracing the white supremacist logics that have for too long been dismissed as inessential or nonconsequential to Romantic studies./p" Confronts the racial and ethnic logics of the Oriental subject undergirding the development of Romantic poetics What happens when we redirect our lines of reading along new paths, borders and orientations--those that fail to fit neatly into the cardinal directions of North, South, East and West? In this innovative new study, Joey S. Kim traces shifting orientations - cultural, geographical, aesthetic, racial and gendered - through Orientalist sites, subjects and settings, to offer refreshing insights into the 'Orient' in British Romantic poetry. Examining what the 'Orient' is, where it is, who it stands for and where it leads, she coins the term 'poetics of orientation' to describe a poetics newly aware of cultural difference as a site of aesthetic contestation. Rather than situating the lyric subject in assumed racial whiteness, 'poetics of orientation' repositions the lyric subject within discussions of Orientalism and racial formation, tracing the white supremacist logics that have for too long been dismissed as inessential or nonconsequential to Romantic studies. Joey S. Kim is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Toledo. She researches global Anglophone literature with a focus on eighteenth and nineteeth-century poetics and aesthetics. Contents 5 List of Figures 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction: Romanticism, Orientalism, Orientation 11 1. Situating the “Orient” in British Romantic Poetry 26 2. Byron’s Cosmopolitan “East” 66 3. The Racialized Poetess 96 4. Disorienting Romanticism: William Blake’s Orientalist Poetics 128 Conclusion 169 Works Cited 175 Index 187