The hardness of stone, the pliancy of wood, the fluidity of palm oil, the crystalline nature of salt, and the vegetable qualities of moss - each describes a way of being in and understanding the world. These substances are both natural objects hailed in Romantic literature and global commodities within a system of extraction and exchange that has driven climate change, representing the paradox of the modern relation to materiality.

In Common Things examines these five common substances - stone, wood, oil, salt, and moss - in the literature of Romantic period authors, excavating their cultural, ecological, and commodity histories. The book argues that the substances and their histories have shaped cultural consciousness, and that Romantic era texts formally encode this shaping. Matthew Rowney draws together processes, beings, and things, both from the Romantic period and from our current ecological moment, to re-invoke a lost heritage of cultural relations with common substances.

Enabling a fresh reading of Romantic literature, In Common Things prompts a reevaluation of the simple, the everyday, and the common, in light of their contributions to our contemporary sense of ourselves and our societies.

About the Author
Matthew Rowney is an assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Reviews
"I find the book's main claim compelling, namely that: 'Rather than assuming natural things exist merely for human use and manipulation, we need to recognize the myriad ways our identities are formed through a belonging to these things, both historically and biologically' (13). The book does a good job of making that case." -- David Sigler, University of Calgary * European Romantic Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781487543488
Author Matthew Rowney
Format Hardback
Page Count 232
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 157mm * 25mm