Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre

Julia M. Wright is Professor of English at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• Notes on contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction Tilottama Rajan and Julia M. Wright; Part I. Genre, History, and the Public Sphere: 1. Godwin and the genre reformers: on necessity and contingency in romantic narrative theory Jon Klancher; 2. Radical print culture in periodical form Kevin Gilmartin; 3. History, trauma, and the limits of the liberal imagination: William Godwin's historical fiction Gary Handwerk; 4. Writing on the border: the national tale, female writing, and the public sphere Ina Ferris; Part II. Genre and Society: 5. Genres from life in Wordsworth's art: Lyrical Ballads 1798 Don Bialostosky; 6. 'A voice in the representation': John Thelwall and the enfranchisement of literature Judith Thompson; 7. 'I am ill-fitted': conflicts of genre in Elisa Fenwick's Secresy Julia M. Wright; 8. Frankenstein as neo-Gothic: from the ghost of the couterfeit to the monster of abjection Jerrold E. Hogle; Part III. Genre, Gender, and the Private Sphere: 9. Autonarration and genotext in Mary Hays' Memoirs of Emma Courtney Tilottama Rajan; 10. 'The science of herself': scenes of female enlightenment Mary Jacobus; 11. The failures of romanticism Jerome McGann; Index.

"The essays collected in Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre are a welcome sign of a renewed interest in the complex interaction of literature, history, and ideology during the Romantic period. This superb collection of essays significantly advances both the theory and practice of genre criticism." Alan Bewell, Letters in Canada