Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation

Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation explores the racial and ethnic logics of the Oriental subject that undergirded the development of Romantic poetics. It demonstrates how 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 and uses the concepts of orientations and Orient to provide fresh readings of British Romantic poetry.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 30 September 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Romanticism and the Poetics of Orientation is a groundbreaking work that delves into the racial and ethnic logics underpinning the development of Romantic poetics. It demonstrates how the construction of the modern lyric subject germinated during the Romantic period through the creation and invention of the Oriental subject. The book analyzes works by Romantic-era authors such as William Jones, Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Felicia Hemans, William Blake, and Phillis Wheatley, using 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 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.

Through her meticulous analysis, Kim reveals how British Romantic poetry engaged with the complexities of race, ethnicity, and cultural identity, challenging the dominant narratives of the time and paving the way for a more inclusive and diverse understanding of Romantic literature. This book is a must-read for scholars and students of Romanticism, cultural studies, and race and ethnicity studies.

Weight: 440g
Dimension: 300 x 200 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399511254