Metaromanticism: Aesthetics, Literature, Theory.(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-05

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2005 Modern Humanities Research Association

Metaromanticism: Aesthetics, Literature, Theory. By PAUL HAMILTON. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2003. viii+316 pp. $25; 17.50 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-226-31480-4.

'Metaromanticism' is Paul Hamilton's coinage. It refers to the philosophical self-reflection that occurs in the works of Romantic poets and novelists. Hamilton's contention is that Romantic literary writers are profoundly and self-critically philosophical; they think through the possibilities and limits of Romantic ideas and practices no less surely than do the Romantic philosophers.

One might put Hamilton's claim in Foucauldian terms. Romantic philosophy is most explicitly manifest in Kant...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.