Literary Minstrelsy, 1770-1830 Minstrels and Improvisers in British, Irish, and American Literature

by Simpson, Erik

• ISBN13: 9780230200517
• ISBN10: 0230200516
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book argues that Romantic-era writers used the figure of the minstrel to imagine authorship as a social, responsive enterprise unlike the solitary process portrayed by Romantic myths of the lone genius. Simpson highlights the centrality of the minstrel to many important literary developments from the Romantic era through to the 1840s.

Author Biography

ERIK SIMPSON is an Assistant Professor of English at Grinnell College. He has published articles in ELH, European Romantic Review and the Journal of the Midwest MLA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
The Minstrel Mode	p. 1
The Minstrel in the World: Sydney Owenson and Irish Internationalism	p. 27
'The Minstrels of Modern Italy': Germaine de Stael, Improvisation, and Myths of Corinne	p. 51
The Minstrel and Regency Romanticism: James Beattie and the Rivalry of Byron and Wordsworth	p. 75
The Minstrel Goes to Market: the Prizes and Contests of James Hogg, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, and Felicia Hemans	p. 104
The 'Minstrel of the Western Continent': The Last of the Mohicans and Transatlantic Minstrelsy before Blackface	p. 134
Notes	p. 158
Works Cited	p. 197
Index	p. 209
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