Description
Before the ideas we now define as Romanticism took hold the word 'atmosphere' meant only the physical stuff of air; afterwards, it could mean almost anything, from a historical mood or spirit to the character or style of an artwork. Thomas H. Ford traces this shift of meaning, which he sees as first occurring in the poetry of William Wordsworth. Gradually 'air' and 'atmosphere' took on the new status of metaphor as Wordsworth and other poets re-imagined poetry as a textual area of aerial communication - conveying the breath of a transitory moment to other times and places via the printed page. Reading Romantic poetry through this ecological and ecocritical lens Ford goes on to ask what the poems of the Romantic period mean for us in a new age of climate change, when the relationship between physical climates and cultural, political and literary atmospheres is once again being transformed.
Presents an ecocritical study of poetic atmosphere, a concept first developed through Romanticism, particularly in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
About the Author
Thomas H. Ford is a Lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He has translated Boris Groys's The Communist Postscript (2010), co-edited A Cultural History of Climate Change (2016), and had articles published in journals including New Literary History, ELH, European Romantic Review and Australian Literary Studies.
Reviews
'... richly theorized and discursively broad-ranging ... Ford convincingly argues that we in the Anthropocene, confronted by a new literalization of cultural atmosphere as climate, have much to learn from this Romantic discourse on atmosphere.' Scott Hess, Review 19
'... Ford offers intriguing readings of a suite of natural history and medico-material texts both central and somewhat peripheral to standard Romantic criticism, including Herder, Goethe, Keats, Howard, Priestley, and Faraday.' Michelle Levy, The Wordsworth Circle
Book Information
ISBN 9781108441032
Author Thomas H. Ford
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 430g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 150mm * 20mm
Presents an ecocritical study of poetic atmosphere, a concept first developed through Romanticism, particularly in the poetry of William Wordsworth.
About the Author
Thomas H. Ford is a Lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He has translated Boris Groys's The Communist Postscript (2010), co-edited A Cultural History of Climate Change (2016), and had articles published in journals including New Literary History, ELH, European Romantic Review and Australian Literary Studies.
Reviews
'... richly theorized and discursively broad-ranging ... Ford convincingly argues that we in the Anthropocene, confronted by a new literalization of cultural atmosphere as climate, have much to learn from this Romantic discourse on atmosphere.' Scott Hess, Review 19
'... Ford offers intriguing readings of a suite of natural history and medico-material texts both central and somewhat peripheral to standard Romantic criticism, including Herder, Goethe, Keats, Howard, Priestley, and Faraday.' Michelle Levy, The Wordsworth Circle
Book Information
ISBN 9781108441032
Author Thomas H. Ford
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 430g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 150mm * 20mm
