Presences That Disturb: Models of Romantic Self-Definition in the Culture and Literature of the 1790s

by Damian Walford Davies

Overview

Presences that Disturb examines the historical and cultural contexts that determined the Romantic self in a revolutionary decade. It explores the ways in which canonical writers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats, and significant political figures such as John Thelwall, imaginatively identified with certain emblematic presences -- from the Dark Age hermit-king Tewdrig to the Polish patriot-General Kosciusko and the Welsh jacobin bard Edward Williams -- as instructive models and haunting second selves. Addressing recent new historicist critiques, this highly original analysis of Romantic identity discusses both the subtle ways in which these crucial but neglected presences inhabit literary texts and their broader cultural impact.

Damian Walford Davies offers a wholly new perspective on Romanticism by rehistoricizing canonical works in relation to marginalized Welsh figures, narratives and locations. Wales and the ideologically troubling space of the Wye Valley are revealed as sites in which Romanticism came to terms with history. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Presences that Disturb also enhances our understanding of how a number of cultural voices and discourses, from antiquarianism and Bardism to topographical description, county history and the tour, determined the shape of canonical Romanticism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780708317389
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	08/02/2002
Series:	University of Wales - Pocket Guide Series
Pages:	374
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Damian Walford-Davies is professor of English and Head of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	viii
	Acknowledgements	ix
	A Note on Texts	x
	List of Abbreviations	xi
	Introduction	1
1	Models of Solitude and Involvement: Tewdrig and David Williams	8
2	Models of Betrayal and Flight: Vortigern	55
3	Models of Defeat and 'Horrid Sufferance': Kosciusko	95
4	Models of Bardic Jacobinism and Gratitude: Edward Williams	135
5	Models of Fellowship and Fulfilment: Wordsworth, Coleridge, John Thelwall	193
	Epilogue	241
	Notes	243
Appendix	'Yours, a true Sans Culotte'--Letters of John Thelwall and Henrietta Cecil Thelwall, 1794-1838	285
	Bibliography	330
	Index	357

Editorial Reviews

An unusually well-conceived, coherent and valuable collection.

The Year's Work in English Studies