Callaghan, M. (2017) Shelley’s living artistry: Letters, poems, plays (Introduction and chapters 5 and 8). Liverpool English Texts and Studies (69). Liverpool University Press ISBN 9781786940247
Abstract
This study of the poetry and drama of Percy Bysshe Shelley reads the letters and their biographical contexts to shed light on the poetry, tracing the ambiguous and shifting relationship between the poet’s art and life. For Shelley, both life and art are transfigured by their relationship with one another where the ‘poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one’ but is equally bound up with and formed by the society in which he lives and the past that he inherits. Callaghan shows that the distinctiveness of Shelley’s work comes to rest on its wrong-footing of any neat division of life and art. The dazzling intensity of Shelley’s poetry and drama lies in its refusal to separate the twain as Shelley explores and finally explodes the boundaries between what is personal and what is poetic. Arguing that the critic, like the artist, cannot ignore the conditions of the poet’s life, Callaghan reveals how Shelley’s artistry reconfigures and redraws the actual in his poetry. The book shows how Shelley’s poetic daring lies in troubling the distinction between poetry as aesthetic work hermetically sealed against life, and poetry as a record of the emotional life of the poet.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Madeleine Callaghan. This is an author produced version of chapters subsequently published in Callaghan, M. (2017) Shelley’s Living Artistry: Letters, Poems, Plays. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Literary Criticism |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > School of English (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2018 11:30 |
Last Modified: | 06 Jun 2019 00:43 |
Published Version: | https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/87... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Liverpool University Press |
Series Name: | Liverpool English Texts and Studies |
Refereed: | Yes |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:131256 |