The first detailed treatment of Switzerland in British literature and culture from Joseph Addison to John Ruskin, this book analyzes the aesthetic and political uses of what is commonly called the 'Swiss myth' in the parallel development of Romanticism and liberalism. The myth merged the country's legends going back to the Middle Ages with the Enlightenment image of a happy, free nation of alpine shepherds. Its unique combination of conservative, progressive, and radical associations enabled writers before the French Revolution to call for democratic reforms, whereas those coming after could refigure it as a conservative alternative to French liberté. Integrating intellectual history with literary studies, and addressing a wide range of Romantic-period texts and authors, among them Byron, the Shelleys, Hemans, Scott, Coleridge, and, above all, Wordsworth, the book argues that the myth contributed to the liberal idea of the people as a sublime yet sleeping sovereign.
Recenzijas
'Given the long-standing link between Romanticism and Switzerland, it seems extraordinary that Patrick Vincent's excellent [ book] is the first monograph to address this crucial literary and cultural relationship Vincent's wide-ranging, detailed, and comprehensive study reveals the complexities of this relationship, scrupulously tracing the shifting individual and collective responses to Switzerland in British literature.' Simon Bainbridge, The Wordsworth Circle ' offers meticulous scholarship and significantly contributes to Romantic studies by examining a foundational myth and its long-lasting impact.' Robert W. Rix, European Romantic Review
Papildus informācija
A detailed treatment of Switzerland in British literature, the book shows how a republican myth contributed to Romanticism and liberalism.
Introduction;
1. 'Not / a pastoral fable': republicanism, liberalism,
and the Swiss myth;
2. Comparative republicanisms: the Swiss myth in
eighteenth-century Britain;
3. Revising republicanism: revolutionary-period
travel writing on Switzerland;
4. Switzerland no more: 1798 and the romantic
imagination;
5. Switzerland in miniature: Wordsworth's 'visionary mountain
republic';
6. Restoration republicanism: the Swiss myth after 1815; Coda:
John Ruskin's Switzerland; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
Patrick Vincent is the author of The Romantic Poetess: European Culture, Politics and Gender, 18201840 (2004), and has edited or co-edited several books, including an edition of Helen Maria Williams' A Tour in Switzerland (2011), Romanticism, Rousseau, Switzerland: New Prospects (2015) and The Cambridge History of European Romantic Literature (forthcoming 2023).
