Minor Literature in Late Romanticism

By: James Najarian

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Synopsis: This book intervenes in the current discussion concerning so-called "minor" English literature of the late 1820s and early 1830s. Writing in the late Romantic period, this study charts the declining economic market for individual poetry volumes as other markets were developing. It examines selected authors over a short time period who consciously placed their works as minor, arguing that "minor" is not only a category that has been used to classify the literary reputation of authors long after their deaths, but a position that authors adopt themselves. Minor poets turn from long ambitious works to shorter lyrics on a limited number of subjects. They respond to the Romantic ideology and its emphasis on individual vision, achievement and reputation, but choose instead the minor. This book explores the work of Charles Lamb, as a theorist of the minor, as well as Thomas Hood, Felicia Hemans, Winthrop Mackworth Praed and Mary Mitford, as exemplars of this style. It links their work to literary Romanticism and yet responds to it in a strategically self-limited way, by posing as ancillary.