Romantic Satanism: Myth and the Historical Moment in Blake, Shelley and Byron

by P. Schock

Overview

Criticism has largely emphasised the private meaning of 'Romantic Satanism', treating it as the celebration of subjectivity through allusions to Paradise Lost that voice Satan's solitary defiance. The first full-length treatment of its subject, Romantic Satanism explores this literary phenomenon as a socially produced myth exhibiting the response of writers to their milieu. Through contextualized readings of the major works of Blake, Shelley, and Byron, this book demonstrates that Satanism enabled Romantic writers to interpret their tempestuous age: it provided them a mythic medium for articulating the hopes and fears their age aroused, for prophesying and inducing change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403911827
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	07/08/2003
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	213
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

PETER A. SCHOCK received his A.B. in English at California State University at Humboldt and his Ph.D at the University of Iowa. He has taught Romantic Literature at the University of New Orleans since 1989; he is now Professor. Previous publications include essays in ELH and Keats-Shelley Journal.

Table of Contents

Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction The Cultural Matrix of Romantic Satanism Blake, the Son of Fire, and the God of this World Base and Arisratic Artificers of Ruin: Plebeian Blasphemy and the Satanic School Saviour and Avenger: Shellyan Satanism and the Face of Change Ironic Modes of Satanism in Byron and Shelley Epliogue: The Ghost of Abel Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'The opening chapter provides an excellent foundation for the rest of the book which provides detailed, intelligent and illuminating readings of the Satanic texts of Blake, Shelly and Byron...Schock's contextualizing approach enables him to show the extent to which each of the studied poets shared their conceptions of Satan with other writers and artists...Illuminating moments of textual criticiam can be found throughout Romantic Satanism , making it a pleasure to read and a book that can be recommended to all students and scholars of Romantic Poetry, as well as to those who are already of the devil's party.' - Simon Bainbridge, Lancaster University, Romanticism

From the Publisher