Dante and the Romantics

The British Romantic poets were among the first to realise the centrality of the Divine Comedy for the evolution of the European epic. This study explores the significance of Dante for Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and William Blake. What was their idea of Dante? Why did they feel the need to approach his Christian epic on the afterlife? This study aims to answer these questions by focusing on the three poets' preoccupation with form and language.

List of contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction PART ONE: (PRE)-ROMANTIC RECEPTIONS OF DANTE The Eighteenth-Century Reception: Dante and Visual Culture The Romantic Translation of the Divine Comedy : Henry Francis Cary's The Vision Dante and High Culture: The Romantic Search for the Epic PART TWO: ROMANTIC PALIMPSESTS 'L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle': Shelley on Dante and Love John Keats and Dante: Speaking the Gods' Language William Blake: The Illustrator of Dante Works Cited and Select Bibliography Index

About the author

ANTONELLA BRAIDA is Lecturer in Italian at the University of Durham. She is co-editor of Image and Word: Reflections of Art and Literature from the Middle Ages to Present (2003).

Summary

The British Romantic poets were among the first to realise the centrality of the Divine Comedy for the evolution of the European epic. This study explores the significance of Dante for Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and William Blake. What was their idea of Dante? Why did they feel the need to approach his Christian epic on the afterlife? This study aims to answer these questions by focusing on the three poets' preoccupation with form and language.

Product details

• Authors: A Braida, A. Braida, Antonella Braida
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2004
• EAN: 9781349515967
• ISBN: 978-1-349-51596-7
• No. of pages: 251
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; B, Poetry, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: general, Poetry and Poetics, European Literature, Literature, Modern—19th century, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Literary studies: ancient, classical & medieval, Classical literature, Classical and Antique Literature, British literature, British and Irish Literature, Early Modern/Renaissance Literature, Early Modern and Renaissance Literature, Literature, Modern, Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection