Late Romanticism and the End of Politics (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781009289207)

In the late Romantic age, demands for political change converged with thinking about the end of the world. This book examines writings by Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and their circle that imagined the end, from poems by Byron that pictured fallen empires, sinking islands, and dying stars to the making and unmaking of populations in Frankenstein and The Last Man. These works intersected with and enclosed reflections upon brewing political changes. By imagining political dynasties, slavery, parliament, and English law reaching an end, writers challenged liberal visions of the political future that viewed the basis of governance as permanently settled. The prospect of volcanic eruptions and biblical deluges, meanwhile, pointed towards new political worlds, forged in the ruins of this one. These visions of coming to an end acquire added resonance in our own time, as political and planetary end-times converge once again.

Author: John Havard
ISBN-10: 1009289209
ISBN-13: 9781009289207
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/13/2023
Pages: 217
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d