Philosophical Connections - Akenside, Neoclassicism, Romanticism

Neoclassical and Romantic verse cultures are often assumed to sit in an oppositional relationship to one another, with the latter amounting to a hostile reaction against the former. But there are in fact a good deal of continuities between the two movements, ones that strike at the heart of the evolution of verse forms in the period. This Element proposes that the mid-eighteenth-century poet Mark Akenside, and his hugely influential Pleasures of Imagination, represent a case study in the deep connections between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Akenside's poem offers a vital illustration of how verse was a rival to philosophy in the period, offering a new perspective on philosophic problems of appearance, or how the world 'seems to be'. What results from this is a poetic form of knowing: one that foregrounds feeling over fact, that connects Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and that Akenside called the imagination's 'pleasures'.

List of contents

Introduction, or 'The Design'; 1. Philosophic Backgrounds: Pope's Essay and Akenside; 2. 'Appearances in the World Around Us': Akenside and the Way Things Seem to Be; 3. 'There to read the transcript of Himself': Coleridge, Akenside, and the Esemplastic Imagination; 4. Akenside's Romanticism: Wordsworth, Keats, and Imaginative Pleasures; Conclusion: Things Connected.

Summary

This Element proposes that the mid-eighteenth-century poet Mark Akenside, and his hugely influential Pleasures of Imagination, represent a case study in the deep connections between Neoclassicism and Romanticism.

Product details

• Authors: Chris Townsend, Chris (Christ''s College Townsend, Townsend Chris
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2022
• EAN: 9781009222976
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0922297-6
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Eighteenth-Century Connections
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; History of Ideas, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General, Philosophy, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: general, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought, Literature: history and criticism, Literary studies: poetry and poets