make sense of it’, Empson argues, and literature is only the most successful end of life’s genera... more make sense of it’, Empson argues, and literature is only the most successful end of life’s general business of attempting to ‘understand what people meant, why mum was cross’. Wood’s prose leaves room for us to hear the mixed seriousness and comedy of these baffling moments in Empson’s writing. Through such quiet ways of ‘using biography’ alongside criticism, On Empson goes beyond a sketch of Empson’s idiosyncrasies or dishevelments to remind us of the firmly human measures of his writing.
Tis essay collection rediscovers and reassesses a host of still little-known, pre-1914, Welsh wom... more Tis essay collection rediscovers and reassesses a host of still little-known, pre-1914, Welsh women writers. In the last few decades considerable advances have been made towards rediscovering, contextualising, and analysing women's writing from Wales. Te combined infuences of the post-1960s women's movement, the 1990s Welsh devolution successes, and the development of the 'Four Nations' school of British literary criticism, have together efected signifcant advances in the feld of Welsh feminist literary studies. Tis book focuses in particular on: the ffeenth-to eighteenth-century Welsh-language bards, such as Gwerful Mechain, Angharad James, and Marged Dafydd; the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century English-language poets, including Katherine Philips, Jane Brereton, Anne Penny, and Anne Hughes; contributors to the Romantic movement in Wales, such as the poets and novelists Mary Robinson and Ann of Swansea; the mid-nineteenth-century protesting voice of polemicists such as Jane Williams (Ysgafell); the Victorian Englishlanguage novelists, for example
From the vantage-point of feminist and psychoanalytic critical perspectives, this essay explores ... more From the vantage-point of feminist and psychoanalytic critical perspectives, this essay explores the long-term repercussions evident in the Lambs’ writings of that ‘day of horrors’ in September 1796 on which Mary Lamb, in a sudden fit of violent mania, killed their mother. Unlike the rest of their family, Charles Lamb remained loyal to his sister after the incident, and secured her release from incarceration through pledging himself to her care. From that date their close partnership took the form of a ‘sibling marriage’, affecting every aspect of their lives and work. Although they rarely refer directly to their mother in their writing, I argue that the manner of her death forms a subtext to many of their characteristic preoccupations; its influences can be traced not only in the children’s books they wrote together but also in Charles’s later writings, including his Essays of Elia.
In 1986, the historian Deirdre Beddoe announced that 'Welsh women are culturally invisib... more In 1986, the historian Deirdre Beddoe announced that 'Welsh women are culturally invisible' (Beddoe 1986, p.227). In an introduction to a recent collection of historical essays on Welsh woman, Angela John also argues that images of Wales and the Welsh have always been ...
... 65 Page 2. JANE AARON embodiments ... day. Not all of her six novels are set in Wales, but An... more ... 65 Page 2. JANE AARON embodiments ... day. Not all of her six novels are set in Wales, but Anna and her third novel Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel (1794) are primarily located in the estates of the Welsh gentry, or in their London residences. ...
A re-reading of The Prelude in the light of poststructuralist and feminist theory, this highly pr... more A re-reading of The Prelude in the light of poststructuralist and feminist theory, this highly praised work is the first major study of the poem by an author distinguished as both Wordsworthian and feminist critic. Beginning with Romantic autobiography, theatrical politics, and history, the book moves by way of Romantic attitudes to language, figuration and voice to consider the role of gender in Romantic self-representation and pedagogy. Besides investigating different aspects of the high Romanticism exemplified by The prelude, individual chapters explore writing by Burke, Rousseau, Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey, while engaging with topics such as literary influence, New Historicism, or the gender-related aspects of Romantic criticism. Romanticism, Writing, and Sexual Difference is an important contribution not only to Wordsworth studies, but to current theoretical debates on both sides of the Atlantic as they bear on the history and politics (including sexual politics) of Romanticism itself. 'given that we are at a breaking point in "romantic" studies, it is difficult to know how to give a book like this the kind of praise it deserves without returning to those very "Romantic" tropes which are put at risk by the book itself. Readers interested in Romanticism, writing, or sexual difference will simply have to read the book for themselves to determine how best to rearticulate the terms of praise.' Modern Philology 'a lively and stimulating book' Times Higher Education Supplement
make sense of it’, Empson argues, and literature is only the most successful end of life’s genera... more make sense of it’, Empson argues, and literature is only the most successful end of life’s general business of attempting to ‘understand what people meant, why mum was cross’. Wood’s prose leaves room for us to hear the mixed seriousness and comedy of these baffling moments in Empson’s writing. Through such quiet ways of ‘using biography’ alongside criticism, On Empson goes beyond a sketch of Empson’s idiosyncrasies or dishevelments to remind us of the firmly human measures of his writing.
Tis essay collection rediscovers and reassesses a host of still little-known, pre-1914, Welsh wom... more Tis essay collection rediscovers and reassesses a host of still little-known, pre-1914, Welsh women writers. In the last few decades considerable advances have been made towards rediscovering, contextualising, and analysing women's writing from Wales. Te combined infuences of the post-1960s women's movement, the 1990s Welsh devolution successes, and the development of the 'Four Nations' school of British literary criticism, have together efected signifcant advances in the feld of Welsh feminist literary studies. Tis book focuses in particular on: the ffeenth-to eighteenth-century Welsh-language bards, such as Gwerful Mechain, Angharad James, and Marged Dafydd; the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century English-language poets, including Katherine Philips, Jane Brereton, Anne Penny, and Anne Hughes; contributors to the Romantic movement in Wales, such as the poets and novelists Mary Robinson and Ann of Swansea; the mid-nineteenth-century protesting voice of polemicists such as Jane Williams (Ysgafell); the Victorian Englishlanguage novelists, for example
From the vantage-point of feminist and psychoanalytic critical perspectives, this essay explores ... more From the vantage-point of feminist and psychoanalytic critical perspectives, this essay explores the long-term repercussions evident in the Lambs’ writings of that ‘day of horrors’ in September 1796 on which Mary Lamb, in a sudden fit of violent mania, killed their mother. Unlike the rest of their family, Charles Lamb remained loyal to his sister after the incident, and secured her release from incarceration through pledging himself to her care. From that date their close partnership took the form of a ‘sibling marriage’, affecting every aspect of their lives and work. Although they rarely refer directly to their mother in their writing, I argue that the manner of her death forms a subtext to many of their characteristic preoccupations; its influences can be traced not only in the children’s books they wrote together but also in Charles’s later writings, including his Essays of Elia.
In 1986, the historian Deirdre Beddoe announced that 'Welsh women are culturally invisib... more In 1986, the historian Deirdre Beddoe announced that 'Welsh women are culturally invisible' (Beddoe 1986, p.227). In an introduction to a recent collection of historical essays on Welsh woman, Angela John also argues that images of Wales and the Welsh have always been ...
... 65 Page 2. JANE AARON embodiments ... day. Not all of her six novels are set in Wales, but An... more ... 65 Page 2. JANE AARON embodiments ... day. Not all of her six novels are set in Wales, but Anna and her third novel Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel (1794) are primarily located in the estates of the Welsh gentry, or in their London residences. ...
A re-reading of The Prelude in the light of poststructuralist and feminist theory, this highly pr... more A re-reading of The Prelude in the light of poststructuralist and feminist theory, this highly praised work is the first major study of the poem by an author distinguished as both Wordsworthian and feminist critic. Beginning with Romantic autobiography, theatrical politics, and history, the book moves by way of Romantic attitudes to language, figuration and voice to consider the role of gender in Romantic self-representation and pedagogy. Besides investigating different aspects of the high Romanticism exemplified by The prelude, individual chapters explore writing by Burke, Rousseau, Hazlitt, Lamb, and De Quincey, while engaging with topics such as literary influence, New Historicism, or the gender-related aspects of Romantic criticism. Romanticism, Writing, and Sexual Difference is an important contribution not only to Wordsworth studies, but to current theoretical debates on both sides of the Atlantic as they bear on the history and politics (including sexual politics) of Romanticism itself. 'given that we are at a breaking point in "romantic" studies, it is difficult to know how to give a book like this the kind of praise it deserves without returning to those very "Romantic" tropes which are put at risk by the book itself. Readers interested in Romanticism, writing, or sexual difference will simply have to read the book for themselves to determine how best to rearticulate the terms of praise.' Modern Philology 'a lively and stimulating book' Times Higher Education Supplement
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