Tim Fulford
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554157
- eISBN:
- 9780191720437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554157.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic ...
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This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic imagery. The chapter shows that Coleridge made admiration of the Nights a badge of Romantic poets, a sign of the “imagination” that he made their defining characteristic—in other words a key part of the Romantic Ideology he, and others, set out in order to advance their claims as revolutionary poets. The chapter shows that Coleridge engaged with the Nights not just (or even principally) at the level of content, but more profoundly at the level of form. Specifically, he developed from the Nights the form of the verse-tale that is discernible in “The Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan,” an anti-realist form that he used to free poetry from the need to illustrate the world as it is and instead compose that world differently. In the 1790s, the chapter argues, this Nights-derived poetic allowed him to write radical re-imaginings of contemporary social mores.Less
This chapter argues that, contra the verdict of Edward Said in Orientalism, English writers—the Romantics at least—did not treat the Arabian Nights as mere children's stories or sources of exotic imagery. The chapter shows that Coleridge made admiration of the Nights a badge of Romantic poets, a sign of the “imagination” that he made their defining characteristic—in other words a key part of the Romantic Ideology he, and others, set out in order to advance their claims as revolutionary poets. The chapter shows that Coleridge engaged with the Nights not just (or even principally) at the level of content, but more profoundly at the level of form. Specifically, he developed from the Nights the form of the verse-tale that is discernible in “The Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan,” an anti-realist form that he used to free poetry from the need to illustrate the world as it is and instead compose that world differently. In the 1790s, the chapter argues, this Nights-derived poetic allowed him to write radical re-imaginings of contemporary social mores.
Chris Murray
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198767015
- eISBN:
- 9780191821240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198767015.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Edward Gibbon and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were uneasy about the prospect of a British Empire, fearing overreach and collapse. Historical precedents such as the Roman Empire and Kublai Khan’s China ...
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Edward Gibbon and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were uneasy about the prospect of a British Empire, fearing overreach and collapse. Historical precedents such as the Roman Empire and Kublai Khan’s China made imperial expansion appear unwise. To Coleridge these predecessors served as warnings to Britain, but to Macartney they offered evidence that the Qing Dynasty was doomed. The Macartney Embassy attempted to recreate aspects of Marco Polo’s reception at Kublai Khan’s court: Macartney, like Gibbon and Coleridge, felt that histories could be replicated. In light of Britain’s fruitless embassies to China in 1793 and 1816, Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ draws on Gibbon’s account of the Khans for prophetic effect. Like Macartney’s journal, Coleridge’s poem articulates a perception that war between Britain and China was likely some decades before the First Opium War occurred.Less
Edward Gibbon and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were uneasy about the prospect of a British Empire, fearing overreach and collapse. Historical precedents such as the Roman Empire and Kublai Khan’s China made imperial expansion appear unwise. To Coleridge these predecessors served as warnings to Britain, but to Macartney they offered evidence that the Qing Dynasty was doomed. The Macartney Embassy attempted to recreate aspects of Marco Polo’s reception at Kublai Khan’s court: Macartney, like Gibbon and Coleridge, felt that histories could be replicated. In light of Britain’s fruitless embassies to China in 1793 and 1816, Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ draws on Gibbon’s account of the Khans for prophetic effect. Like Macartney’s journal, Coleridge’s poem articulates a perception that war between Britain and China was likely some decades before the First Opium War occurred.
Lucy Newlyn
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199242597
- eISBN:
- 9780191697142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242597.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
In June 1797, Coleridge arranged for the Wordsworths to live at Alfoxden house, two miles walk from Nether Stowey. The new elements in Wordsworth's writing (a concern with mental process, and the ...
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In June 1797, Coleridge arranged for the Wordsworths to live at Alfoxden house, two miles walk from Nether Stowey. The new elements in Wordsworth's writing (a concern with mental process, and the sudden prominence of Milton) are mutually enhancing. As the poet turns inward, to observe the workings of his mind, his writing becomes more self-aware: producing its own greatness by reference to other poems. Kubla Khan, written the previous November, had enacted the same dual process, but Coleridge's influence is not so specific that it can be pinned down. What matters in this case is not the chronology of change so much as compatibility, despite difference, of the writers.Less
In June 1797, Coleridge arranged for the Wordsworths to live at Alfoxden house, two miles walk from Nether Stowey. The new elements in Wordsworth's writing (a concern with mental process, and the sudden prominence of Milton) are mutually enhancing. As the poet turns inward, to observe the workings of his mind, his writing becomes more self-aware: producing its own greatness by reference to other poems. Kubla Khan, written the previous November, had enacted the same dual process, but Coleridge's influence is not so specific that it can be pinned down. What matters in this case is not the chronology of change so much as compatibility, despite difference, of the writers.
