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This
Companion brings together specially commissioned essays by distinguished international scholars that reflect both the diversity of Victorian poetry and the variety of critical approaches that illuminate it. The volume opens with an introductory essay on Victorian poetics by Carol Christ that offers a commanding overview of the whole period. The remaining contributions are organized into three parts. The first surveys the variety of schools and styles in Victorian poetry; in the second, the focus shifts from the form and content of the poetry to the means of its production and distribution; the final part positions Victorian verse in its contexts and explores its interactions with dominant cultural discourses.
The
Companion as a whole does more than map the existing state of scholarship in the field; it sets out an agenda for future research.
List of contents
Editors' Preface viii
Notes on Contributors x
Chronology xv
Introduction: Victorian Poetics 1
Carol T. Christ PART ONE Varieties and Forms 23 1 Epic 25
Herbert F. Tucker 2 Domestic and Idyllic 42
Linda H. Peterson 3 Lyric 59
Matthew Rowlinson 4 Dramatic Monologue 80
E. Warwick Slinn 5 Sonnet and Sonnet Sequence 99
Alison Chapman 6 Elegy 115
Seamus Perry 7 Hymn 134
J. R. Watson 8 Nonsense 155
Roderick McGillis 9 Verse Novel 171
Dino Felluga 10 Verse Drama 187
Adrienne Scullion 11 Working-Class Poetry 204
Florence Boos 12 The Classical Tradition 229
Richard Jenkyns 13 Arthurian Poetry and Medievalism 246
Antony H. Harrison 14 Poetry in Translation 262
J.-A. George 15 Tractarian Poetry 279
Stephen Prickett 16 The Spasmodics 291
Richard Cronin 17 The Pre-Raphaelite School 305
David Riede 18 The Poetry of the 1890s 321
Chris Snodgrass PART TWO Production, Distribution and Reception 343 19 The Market 345
Lee Erickson 20 Anthologies and the Making of the Poetic Canon 361
Natalie M. Houston 21 Reviewing 378
Joanne Shattock 22 Poetry and Illustration 392
Lorraine Janzen Kooistra PART THREE Victorian Poetry and Victorian Culture 419 23 Nationhood and Empire 421
Margaret Linley 24 Poetry in the Four Nations 438
Matthew Campbell 25 Poetry and Religion 457
W. David Shaw 26 Poetry and Science 475
Alan Rauch 27 Landscape and Cityscape 493
Pauline Fletcher 28 Vision and Visuality 510
Catherine Maxwell 29 Marriage and Gender 526
Julia F. Saville 30 Sexuality and Love 543
John Maynard Index 567
About the author
Richard Cronin teaches at Glasgow University. His publications include
The Politics of Romantic Poetry (2000) and
Romantic Victorians: English Literature 1824-1840 (2002)
Antony H. Harrison teaches at North Carolina State University. His books include
Victorian Poets and Romantic Poems (1990),
Victorian Poets and the Politics of Culture (1998),
The Culture of Christina Rossetti (1999), and
The Letters of Christina Rossetti (4 vols, 1998-2004).
Alison Chapman teaches at Glasgow University and is the author of
The Afterlife of Christina Rossetti (2000), editor of
Victorian Women's Poetry (2003), and co-editor of
Women and Italy in the Nineteenth Century (2002).
Summary
Presents essays that reflect the diversity of Victorian poetry and the variety of critical approaches that illuminate it. This book opens with an introductory essay on Victorian poetics that provides an overview of the whole period. It surveys the variety of styles in Victorian poetry and focuses on the means of its production and distribution.
