Jefferson and the Iconography of Romanticism: Folk, Land, Culture, and the Romantic Nation

by M. Kelsall

Overview

Jefferson and the Iconography of Romanticism is the first full-length study to examine how Jefferson, in the process of inventing the USA as the first new nation of the Romantic era, sought to find an appropriate imagery to represent the people, their homeland and the cultural ideal to which they should aspire. It examines in detail the role of his villa at Monticello in embodying the national ideal, shows how those ideals emerged and how they were subsequently challenged by the reinterpretation of Jefferson's iconography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333698242
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	05/17/1999
Series:	Romanticism in Perspective:Texts, Cultures, Histories , #14494
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	207
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

MALCOLM KELSALL is Professor of English, University of Wales, Cardiff; formerly Professor of English, University College, Cardiff, since 1975. Author Christopher Marlowe (1981), Congreve: The Way of the World (1981), Byron's Politics (1987, awarded the Elma Dangerfield Prize, 1991), The Great Good Place: The Country House and English Literature (1992)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Plates The Pilgrimage to Monticello Kennst du das Land? Notes on the State of Virginia The Villa on a Hill Writing Monticello Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

Examines Jefferson's role in establishing an iconography for the newly emergent country, and his invention of an idealized image of an ordinary American people, focusing on the national iconography of Jefferson's villa at Monticello. Contextualizes the villa in relation to his earlier explorations of American identity, examines the attempt to establish at Monticello fixed signs of the myth of the Fourth of July, and shows how Monticello became a site of contention in the definition of what it is to be American. Includes b&w photos and illustrations of interiors and exteriors of historical sites. The author is a professor of English at the University of Wales-Cardiff. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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