Hegel and the English Romantic Tradition

In Hegel and the English Romantic Tradition, Wayne Deakin re-examines English Romanticism through the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel. Outlining and expanding upon Hegel's theory of recognition, Deakin critiques four canonical writers of the English Romantic tradition - Coleridge, Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley and Mary Shelley - and argues that they, like Hegel, are engaged in a struggle towards philosophical recognition. The fresh approach offers the possibility of re-reading these writers in new and innovative ways, while at the same time critiquing Hegel's own philosophy of mind and challenging his hierarchy of philosophy, religion, art. The book also examines previous criticisms, such as those of McGann, Butler, Mellor and Abrams, and claims that all of these theories of Romanticism are complimentary and can be subsumed by this new model of "philosophical romanticism".

Dr. Wayne Deakin is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Language at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. He has published a number of academic articles, including 'Acknowledgment and Avoidance in Coleridge and Hölderlin' and is currently writing a book on Hegel, Marx and modern Thai culture.

Introduction
i. A Discrimination of Vriticisms
ii. Why 'philosophical romanticism'
iii. Romantic Embodiment
iv. Chapter Breakdown
PART I: HEGELIAN ROMANTICISM AND THE SYMBIOTIC ALTERITY OF AUTONOMY AND RECEPTIVITY
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Hegel's Conception of Recognition in an Aesthetic Light
1.3 Hegel's Response to Romantic Art
1.4 Hegel and Romantic Metaphysics
1.5 Hegel's Aesthetics in the Modern Context
PART II: PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL INTUITION IN COLERIDGE'S POETICS
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Coleridge's Philosophical Dichotomy
2.3 Coleridge's Theological Escape from Aporia
2.4 Symbol and Allegory in Coleridge
2.5 The Deconstruction of Allegory and Symbol in 'Kubla Khan'
2.6 The Antagonists of the Imagination in 'Kubla Khan'
2.7 Coleridge's 'unhappy consciousness' in 'Frost at Midnight'
2.8 The Aporetic Recognition through Joy in 'Dejection'
2.9 Recognitive Breakdown in 'Constancy to an Ideal Object'
PART III: WORDSWORTH'S METAPHYSICAL EQUIPOISE
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Wordsworth and Romantic Metaphysics
3.3 Wordsworth's Ladder
3.4 Dialectical Criticism of Wordsworth
3.5 Contingency and Embodiment
3.6 Doubt and Embodiment in 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798.'
3.7 'Home' at Grasmere: Embodiment
3.8 The Unifying Nature of the Wordsworthian Symbol
3.9 Conclusion
PART IV: DIALECTICAL COLLAPSE AND POST-ROMANTIC RECOGNITION IN SHELLEY
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Shelley's Quest for the Imagination upon Mont Blanc
4.3 Visionary Alienation in 'Alastor'
4.4 Eschatological Projection in 'Adonais'
4.5 Wonder, Transfiguration and Irony in 'The Triumph of Life'
PART V: THE CONTINGENT LIMITS OF ROMANTIC MYTH MAKING
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Romantic Discourse of Wordsworth and Coleridge
5.3 Shelley's Second-order Discourse
5.4 Embodied Scepticism: Frankenstein
5.5 Conclusion