Madness and the Romantic Poet: A Critical History

Synopsis

Madness And The Romantic Poet' Examines The Longstanding And Enduringly Popular Idea That Poetry Is Connected To Madness And Mental Illness. The Idea Goes Back To Classical Antiquity, But It Was Given New Life At The Turn Of The Nineteenth Century. The Book Offers A New And Much More Complete History Of Its Development Than Has Previously Been Attempted, Alongside Important Associated Ideas About Individual Genius, Creativity, The Emotions, Rationality, And The Mind In Extreme States Or Disorder - Ideas That Have Been Pervasive In Modern Popular Culture. More Specifically, The Book Tells The Story Of The Initial Growth And Wider Dissemination Of The Idea Of The 'romantic Mad Poet' In The Nineteenth Century, How (and Why) This Idea Became So Popular, And How It Interacted With The Very Different Fortunes In Reception And Reputation Of Romantic Poets, Their Poetry, And Attacks On Or Defences Of Romanticism As A Cultural Trend Generally - Again Leaving A Popular Legacy That Endured Into The Twentieth Century. Material Covered Includes Nineteenth-century Journalism, Early Literary Criticism, Biography, Medical And Psychiatric Literature, And Poetry. Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. `a Precarious Gift': Classical Traditions And Their Romantic Reception -- 2. `on The Giddy Brink': Eighteenth-century Prospects -- 3. Alienism: Mad-doctoring And The Mad Poet -- 4. Balaam And Bedlam: Romantic Reviewers And The Rhetoric Of Insanity -- 5. Cases Of Poetry: Romantic Biographers And The Origins Of Psychobiography -- 6. Creativity, Genius, And Madness: A Scientific Debate And Its Romantic Origins -- 7. Madness Writing Poetry/poetry Writing Madness -- 8. Conclusion: Madness, Modernity, And Romanticism. James Whitehead. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 263-292) And Index.