Blank Splendour: Mere Existence in British Romanticism

British Romantic poetry and art depict a state of mere existence, where time, space, subject, object, language, and visuality have fallen away, offering a domain prior to the world and thought. Works by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Clare, as well as paintings by Turner, evoke this condition, which transpires in a time without time and a life without life. David Collings argues that these works invite us to move beyond the subtle remnants of ontology in posthuman thought and open up a domain of affect without affect, a world without objects. They bring into view a deconstruction that emerged before the linguistic turn and meditate on the blank condition underlying modernity. Ultimately, Blank Splendour reveals how these works speak to our own moment, when thought enters a new form of mere existence.

Format: Hardback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 30 July 2024
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

British Romantic poetry and art often portray a state where the characteristics of existence—time, space, subject, object, language, and visuality—have dissolved, leaving a realm prior to the world and thought, a condition of mere existence. Examples include poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Clare, as well as paintings by Turner, which evoke a time without time and a life without life. David Collings suggests that these works invite us to transcend the subtle remnants of ontology present in contemporary posthuman thought, such as affect theory and speculative realism, by opening up a domain of affect without affect, a world without objects. By anticipating the philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Maurice Blanchot, these works highlight a deconstruction that predates the linguistic turn and meditates on the blank condition underlying modernity. Ultimately, Blank Splendour reveals how these works resonate with our own moment, when thought, confronted with its own extinction, enters a new form of mere existence.

Weight: 400g
Dimension: 235 x 159 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487556044