Title: The enlightened romantic : Kantian philosophy and Coleridge's ideological revolution in religious musings and France : an ode
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2024, vol. 50, iss. 2, pp. 153-167
Extent
153-167
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2024-2-7
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.82131
Type: Article
Language
English
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Rights access
open access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Scholarly research on Coleridge's ideological shift provides the academia with an explanation which seems to be a justification or rather an oversimplification of the issue. Nevertheless, this study argues that Coleridge's disillusionment was not just due to the Revolution's shortcomings, but rather was a result of an ideological growth. The paper first marks the deficiencies of the unsatisfactory view in the widely accepted interpretation of his ideological shift. Then, considering the poet's beliefs on social change, his visit to Germany, and interaction with Kantian Enlightenment, the paper depicts his alignment with Kant's ideas. Accordingly, the paper steps on an untrodden path, employing insights from Slavoj Žižek and Lacanian Psychoanalysis, to suggest that his adoption of conservatism, due to his acceptance of Kant's ideological, conservative attitude towards the realization of the Enlightenment, was motivated by a need for stability and a concrete link to the Symbolic Order qua the society, which contradicts conventional accounts of his ideological development.
References
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[3] Christie, William (2007) Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Literary Life. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[4] Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1850) Essays on His Own Times: Forming a Second Series of the Friend. Sara Coleridge (ed.), vol. 3, London: Pickering.
[5] Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1912) France: An Ode. In: The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 243–247.
[6] Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1912) Religious Musings. In: The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 108-125.
[7] Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1853) The Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Prose and Verse. Philadelphia: Crissy & Markley.
[8] Johnson, Arnold (2011) God's Truth about the End of Time. Bloomington: WestBow Press.
[9] Kant, Immanuel (1991) Kant: Political Writings. H. B. Nisbet and H. S. Reiss (eds.), Translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10] Kitson, Peter (1989) Coleridge, the French revolution, and 'the Ancient Mariner': collective guilt and individual salvation. The Yearbook of English Studies 19, 197–207. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3508050.
[11] Lacan, Jacques (1997) The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960. Jacques-Alain Miller (ed.), Translated by Dennis Porter. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
[12] Magnuson, Paul (2014) Reading Public Romanticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[13] Morrow, John and Doudna, Jennifer (1990) Coleridge's Political Thought: Property, Morality and the Limits of Traditional Discourse. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
[14] Risinger, Jacob (2015) Coleridge, politics, and the 'Theory of Life'. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 55 (3), 647–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24511196.
[15] Rodkey, Christopher D. (2006) World Religions Workbook. Lulu.com.
[16] Stockitt, Robin (2011) Imagination and the Playfulness of God: The Theological Implications of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Definition of the Human Imagination. Eugene: Pickwick Publications.
[17] Žižek, Slavoj (2002) For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor. 2nd ed. London: Verso.
[18] Žižek, Slavoj (2008) The Sublime Object of Ideology. 2nd ed. London: Verso Books.