Necromanticism Traveling to Meet the Dead, 1750-1860

by Westover, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780230304437
• ISBN10: 0230304435
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Necromanticismis a study of literary pilgrimage: readers' compulsion to visit literary homes, landscapes, and (especially) graves during the long Romantic period. The book draws on the histories of tourism and literary genres to highlight Romanticism's recourse to the dead in its reading, writing, and canon-making practices.

Author Biography

Paul Westover is Assistant Professor of English at Brigham Young University, USA.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction: Traveling to Meet the Dead	p. 1
On Ideal Presence	p. 17
The Origins of Literary Tourism	p. 31
William Godwin, Necro-Tourism, and the Empirical Afterlife of the Dead	p. 48
Imaginary Pilgrimages: Felicia Hemans, Dead Poets, and Romantic Historiography	p. 75
Interlude: Necromanticism and Romantic Authorship	p. 92
The Transatlantic Invention of "English" Literary Heritage	p. 106
Illustration, Historicism, and Travel: The Legacy of Sir Walter Scott	p. 142
Notes	p. 174
Works Consulted	p. 195
Index	p. 208
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