British Romanticism in European Perspective ― Into the Eurozone

This collection asks what British Romanticism looks like in the context of European literature, history and culture.

Romanticism is at the root of modern European nationalism. The Romantic idea of national character contributes to the tendency to study national Romanticisms in isolation, despite the cosmopolitan international circulation also essential to the movement. Britain's complex identity as island, United Kingdom, and European nation highlights the ways the forces of separatism and unity, nationalism and internationalism work in constant tension in the understanding of nation that has grown from Romanticism.

The character, and the dating, of Romanticism alter when perceived from different national and generic perspectives. The essays here range from poetry and the novel to science writing, philosophy, visual art, opera and melodrama, placing British Romanticism in relation to other European traditions, from France and Germany to Italy and Bosnia.

Steve Clark is Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology in the University of Tokyo, Japan. He has edited essay collections and special issues ranging in topic from William Blake to travel writing to Paul Ricoeur. His most recent articles discuss Isabella Bird on Japan, and the fiction of Gopal Baratham.

Tristanne Connolly is Associate Professor at St Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, Canada. She is the author of William Blake and the Body and essays on Blake, Erasmus Darwin, Romantic women poets, maternity, sexuality, and religion. She has edited several essay collections, most recently Sexy Blake with Helen P. Bruder.