Visions of British Culture from the Reformation to Romanticism: The Protestant Discovery of Tradition

This book explores the rise of interest in British vernacular cultures from the Reformation to Romanticism, placing it in a longer historical timeline and showing how it developed in response to the attack on customary practices and beliefs by the Reformers. It is a significant contribution to the study of cultural identities in Britain and Ireland.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 311 pages
Publication date: 19 January 2023
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This groundbreaking book makes a significant contribution to the study of cultural identities in Britain and Ireland from the Reformation to Romanticism. By offering a fresh perspective on the rise of interest in British vernacular (or "folk") cultures, which has frequently been overshadowed by the emergence of British Romanticism and its continental predecessors, it sheds new light on this important period. The book charts the emergence of a nuanced discourse about vernacular cultures, which developed in response to the devastating attack on customary practices and beliefs related to the natural world, seasonal festivities, and rites of passage launched by the Protestant Reformation. This discourse was grounded in humanist Biblical and antiquarian scholarship, informed by the theological and pastoral problems of the long period of religious instability after the Reformation, and influenced by new ideas about culture drawn from Enlightenment historicism and empiricism.

Through its comprehensive analysis, the book demonstrates that Romantic literary primitivism and Romantic social thought, both radical and conservative, emerged from this rich context. It will be of great interest to historians of early modern and eighteenth-century Britain, as well as those who are passionate about the study of religious and vernacular cultures. This book is a valuable addition to the field and will undoubtedly inspire further research and discussion.

Weight: 427g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030828578
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022