Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, European, British
Cover of the book Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger by David Simpson, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Simpson ISBN: 9780226922362
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: January 15, 2013
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: David Simpson
ISBN: 9780226922362
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: January 15, 2013
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

In our post-9/11 world, the figure of the stranger—the foreigner, the enemy, the unknown visitor—carries a particular urgency, and the force of language used to describe those who are “different” has become particularly strong. But arguments about the stranger are not unique to our time. In Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger, David Simpson locates the figure of the stranger and the rhetoric of strangeness in romanticism and places them in a tradition that extends from antiquity to today.

 

Simpson shows that debates about strangers loomed large in the French Republic of the 1790s, resulting in heated discourse that weighed who was to be welcomed and who was to be proscribed as dangerous. Placing this debate in the context of classical, biblical, and other later writings, he identifies a persistent difficulty in controlling the play between the despised and the desired. He examines the stranger as found in the works of Coleridge, Austen, Scott, and Southey, as well as in depictions of the betrayals of hospitality in the literature of slavery and exploration—as in Mungo Park's Travels and Stedman's Narrative—and portrayals of strange women in de Staël, Rousseau, and Burney. Contributing to a rich strain of thinking about the stranger that includes interventions by Ricoeur and Derrida, Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger reveals the complex history of encounters with alien figures and our continued struggles with romantic concerns about the unknown.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In our post-9/11 world, the figure of the stranger—the foreigner, the enemy, the unknown visitor—carries a particular urgency, and the force of language used to describe those who are “different” has become particularly strong. But arguments about the stranger are not unique to our time. In Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger, David Simpson locates the figure of the stranger and the rhetoric of strangeness in romanticism and places them in a tradition that extends from antiquity to today.

 

Simpson shows that debates about strangers loomed large in the French Republic of the 1790s, resulting in heated discourse that weighed who was to be welcomed and who was to be proscribed as dangerous. Placing this debate in the context of classical, biblical, and other later writings, he identifies a persistent difficulty in controlling the play between the despised and the desired. He examines the stranger as found in the works of Coleridge, Austen, Scott, and Southey, as well as in depictions of the betrayals of hospitality in the literature of slavery and exploration—as in Mungo Park's Travels and Stedman's Narrative—and portrayals of strange women in de Staël, Rousseau, and Burney. Contributing to a rich strain of thinking about the stranger that includes interventions by Ricoeur and Derrida, Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger reveals the complex history of encounters with alien figures and our continued struggles with romantic concerns about the unknown.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Strange Tales of an Oriental Idol by David Simpson
Cover of the book Sidereus Nuncius, or The Sidereal Messenger by David Simpson
Cover of the book Toward a Just World by David Simpson
Cover of the book Philosophy of Pseudoscience by David Simpson
Cover of the book Flashfire by David Simpson
Cover of the book The Sounding of the Whale by David Simpson
Cover of the book Legislating in the Dark by David Simpson
Cover of the book Museums Matter by David Simpson
Cover of the book Canine Confidential by David Simpson
Cover of the book The Genealogical Science by David Simpson
Cover of the book Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 30 by David Simpson
Cover of the book Flavor and Soul by David Simpson
Cover of the book The Willow Pattern by David Simpson
Cover of the book Nietzsche's Enlightenment by David Simpson
Cover of the book The Prophet's Camel Bell by David Simpson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy