Examines dissident conceptions of space in the British Romantic era Radical Romantics is about utopias and failed utopias, about cities that are palimpsests, and about the unwieldy span of the ocean. From William Blake's visionary poetry to Lord Byron's Eastern romances, from prophetic pamphlets to travel narratives, texts of the Romantic era make use of imaginative spaces to reveal the contours and limits of territorial sovereignty. In doing so, they raise fundamental questions about our understanding of both territorial and imagined space. What are the means by which people can conceive of geographical space without resorting to the terms of nationalism? Is it possible to imagine a space beyond territory, as movement itself? How can we articulate the overlap between mapped and lived space? Key Features Engages with the critical frameworks of cultural geography, cartography, and the burgeoning field of oceanic studiesReformulates theories of colonization and empire in the Romantic periodPuts canonical poetry in dialogue with travel tales and prophetic tracts

About the Author
Talissa Ford is an Assistant Professor of English at Temple University. She has published scholarly articles in Studies in Romanticism and in Romantic Circle Reviews.

Reviews
Radical Romantics offers an innovative approach to areas at the forefront of critical enquiry into Romantic-era writing. Its bold new stroke is to compare and contrast very different kinds of writing, usually viewed as unrelated, because they all disturb, disconfirm, and undermine the languages of colonialism. One does not expect to find pirate narratives, visionary poems and prophecies in the same study, but Ford's book succeeds at throwing each into a new light by the unlikely juxtaposition. -- Tim Fulford, De Montfort University



Book Information
ISBN 9781474409421
Author Talissa Ford
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press
Weight(grams) 439g