| Description |
xi, 545 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
pt. 1. Conservative and Benthamite aesthetics of the avant-garde : Tennyson and Browning in the 1830s -- 1. Two systems of concentric circles -- 2. Experiments of 1830 : Tennyson and the formation of subversive, conservative poetry -- 3. 1832 : critique of the poetry of sensation -- 4. Experiments in the 1830s : Browning and the Benthamite formation -- 5. The politics of dramatic form -- pt. 2. Mid-century : European revolution and Crimean war--democratic, liberal, radical and feminine voices -- 6. Individualism under pressure -- 7. The radical in crisis : Clough -- 8. The liberal in crisis : Arnold -- 9. A new radical aesthetic--the Grotesque as cultural critique : Morris -- 10. Tennyson in the 1850s : new experiments in conservative poetry and the Type -- 11. Browning in the 1850s and after : new experiments in radical poetry and the Grotesque -- 12. 'A music of thine own' : women's poetry--an expressive tradition? -- pt. 3. Another culture? Another poetics? -- 13. Swinburne : agonistic republican--the poetry of sensation as democratic critique -- 14. Hopkins : agonistic reactionary--the Grotesque as conservative form -- 15. Meredith and others : hard, gem-like dissidence -- 16. James Thomson : atheist, blasphemer and anarchist--the Grotesque sublime |
| Summary |
In a work that is uniquely comprehensive and theoretically astute, Isobel Armstrong rescues Victorian poetry from its longstanding sepia image as 'a moralised form of romantic verse', and unearths its often subversive critique of nineteenth-century culture and politics |
|
Victorian Poetry is a major re-evaluation of the genre by one of the foremost scholars of the period. In a work that is uniquely comprehensive and theoretically astute, Isobel Armstrong rescues Victorian poetry from its longstanding sepia image as a 'a moralised form of romantic verse', and unearths its often subversive critique of nineteenth-century culture and politics. For the first time, the aesthetics and politics of Victorian poetry are brought together in a sustained historical discussion. Isobel Armstrong examines its conservative and dissident traditions, and compares the work of familiar middle-class male poets to that of female and working-class poets. Victorian Poetry brilliantly demonstrates the extraordinary sophistication of the genre. At the same time it presents a vigorous challenge to some crucial issues in contemporary Marxist, post-structuralist and feminist criticism. The volume constitutes a landmark in the appreciation and understanding of Victorian literature |
| Analysis |
English poetry |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Canon (Literature)
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English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
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Poetics.
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Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
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| LC no. |
92002451 |
| ISBN |
0415030161 (hbk) |
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0415144256 (paperback) |
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