Minor Literature in Late Romanticism - by James Najarian (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book intervenes in the current discussion concerning so-called "minor" English literature of the late 1820s and early 1830s. Writing in the late Romantic period, this study charts the declining economic market for individual poetry volumes as other markets were developing. It examines selected authors over a short time period who consciously placed their works as minor, arguing that "minor" is not only a category that has been used to classify the literary reputation of authors long after their deaths, but a position that authors adopt themselves. Minor poets turn from long ambitious works to shorter lyrics on a limited number of subjects. They respond to the Romantic ideology and its emphasis on individual vision, achievement and reputation, but choose instead the minor. This book explores the work of Charles Lamb, as a theorist of the minor, as well as Thomas Hood, Felicia Hemans, Winthrop Mackworth Praed and Mary Mitford, as exemplars of this style. It links their work to literary Romanticism and yet responds to it in a strategically self-limited way, by posing as ancillary.

From the Back Cover

"This book revises our understanding of what it means to describe an author as 'minor', peripheral, or secondary. Najarian's study presents its insights through an artful blending of close, detailed, attention to the formal and affective properties of a range of literary works by late Romantic writers with an assured sense of the history of the nineteenth-century publishing marketplace." - Mark Sandy, Professor of English, Durham University, UK

"Minor Literature in Late Romanticism: English Literature in Late Romanticism makes a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of literary minorness and the scholarly revaluation of late Romanticism, traditionally dismissed as a transitional period between Romanticism and Victorianism. It also provides useful introductions to little-known authors such as Hood, Praed, and Mitford and insightful and informative readings of neglected texts." - William Brewer, Professor of English, Appalachian State University, USA

This book intervenes in the current discussion concerning so-called "minor" English literature of the late 1820s and early 1830s. Writing in the late Romantic period, this study charts the declining economic market for individual poetry volumes as other markets were developing. It examines selected authors over a short time period who consciously placed their works as minor, arguing that "minor" is not only a category that has been used to classify the literary reputation of authors long after their deaths, but a position that authors adopt themselves. Minor poets turn from long ambitious works to shorter lyrics on a limited number of subjects. They respond to the Romantic ideology and its emphasis on individual vision, achievement and reputation, but choose instead the minor. This book explores the work of Charles Lamb, as a theorist of the minor, as well as Thomas Hood, Felicia Hemans, Winthrop Mackworth Praed and Mary Mitford, as exemplars of this style. It links their work to literary Romanticism and yet responds to it in a strategically self-limited way, by posing as ancillary.

James Najarian is Associate Professor of English at Boston College, USA and Editor of Religion and the Arts. He is author of Victorian Keats: Manliness, Sexuality, and Desire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

About the Author