Romantic Empiricism

Poetics and the Philosophy of Common Sense 1780-1830

Gavin Budge (Ed.)

2007
202 pages
ISBN 9781611483079
Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture

Romantic Empiricism is a timely collection of essays by established and emerging scholars, which represents a paradigm shift for the study of British Romanticism. The volume challenges the received view that German Idealist philosophy constitutes the main intellectual reference point for British Romantic writers, arguing instead that the tradition of Scottish Common Sense philosophy, largely overlooked by literary scholars, is a significant influence on Romantic thought. The essays in the collection examine a variety of canonical and non-canonical Romantic authors in the light of this fresh interpretative context, ranging from Charlotte Smith and Elizabeth Hamilton to Robert Burns and S.T. Coleridge. The volume is prefaced by a substantial theoretical introduction, which sets out the historical and interpretative case for the relevance of Common Sense philosophy for the study of British Romanticism.

Contributors: Cairns Craig, Nigel Leask, Fiona Price, Alex Dick, and Gavin Budge.

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Reviews

"...these are valuable studies, contributing substantially and insightfully to the field of romantic scholarship."--Uttara Natarajan,SiR, 49 (Winter 2010)

About the editor:

Gavin Budge is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Hertfordshire, and also the Executive Secretary of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

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