"Introduction" to special issue of Romantic Textualities

Journal article


Civale, S. 2019. "Introduction" to special issue of Romantic Textualities. Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840.
AuthorsCivale, S.
Abstract

This special issue comes out of two ‘Romantic Novels’ seminar series, held in 2017 and 2018, inspired by the Romantic Bicentenary and hosted by the University of Greenwich (and funded by generous contributions from BARS, Romantic Bicentennials, University of Greenwich, and Canterbury Christ Church University). Each of the twelve seminars focused on a novel published in either 1817 or 1818, which was introduced by an expert and then discussed by the group at large. By including well known writers such as Walter Scott and Mary Shelley as well as their prolific and popular but now forgotten contemporaries, such as Ann Hatton, the series asked questions about why some books continue to be studied 200 years after their initial publication, and others have all but disappeared. The seminars also allowed us to reposition ‘classic’ novels in the context of the varied literary marketplace in which they were originally printed, offering a window into how these novels differed from—but also resembled—their literary competitors. Although the novels spanned a range of genres including historical romance, domestic fiction, Gothic, didactic literature, and the national tale, and an array of authors and publishers, the selection of texts was not truly random or representative. From a field of roughly 110 novels published in Britain in these years, the sample of twelve chosen for study was influenced by considerations of accessibility, length, interest, and the expertise and availability of scholars sufficiently well versed in the texts. Still, taken as a group, the sample of twelve books covered a range wide enough to respond to the calls of scholars to move beyond reading what we already know how to read, to address questions of aesthetic value, and to contribute to the long overdue ‘reassess[ment of] just what Romantic novels actually are’.

KeywordsNovels; Romanticism; Gothic; Genre; Popular novels; Nineteenth century literature
Year2019
JournalRomantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840
PublisherCardiff University Press
ISSN1748-0116
Publication process dates
Deposited10 Dec 2020
Accepted30 Jun 2019
Accepted author manuscript
Output statusIn press
Permalink -

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8wx25/-introduction-to-special-issue-of-romantic-textualities

Download files

  • 74
    total views
  • 88
    total downloads
  • 3
    views this month
  • 2
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

The Mortal Immortal graphic novel
Civale, S., Schwochert, J. and Stone, R. 2024. The Mortal Immortal graphic novel. Canterbury
Mary Shelley graphic novel workshop
Stone, R., Civale, S. and Schwochert, J. 2024. Mary Shelley graphic novel workshop. Canterbury Christ Church University
Fostering children's enthusiasm, engagement and creativity with classic texts: Adapting Mary Shelley's 'The Mortal Immortal' (1833) into a graphic novel
Stone, R. and Civale, S. 2024. Fostering children's enthusiasm, engagement and creativity with classic texts: Adapting Mary Shelley's 'The Mortal Immortal' (1833) into a graphic novel.
Vampirism as literary piracy in Paul Féval’s Vampire City (1875)
Civale, S. 2022. Vampirism as literary piracy in Paul Féval’s Vampire City (1875). Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. 1 (2). https://doi.org/10.3828/gncs.2022.22
Hamilton, Catherine Jane [pseud. Retlaw Spring] (1841–1935), author and journalist
Civale, S. 2018. Hamilton, Catherine Jane [pseud. Retlaw Spring] (1841–1935), author and journalist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.109659
Romantic women's life writing: reputation and afterlife
Civale, S. 2019. Romantic women's life writing: reputation and afterlife. Manchester University Press.
Women’s life writing and reputation: a case study of Mary Darby Robinson
Civale, S. 2018. Women’s life writing and reputation: a case study of Mary Darby Robinson. Romanticism. 24 (2), pp. 191-202. https://doi.org/10.3366/rom.2018.0372
Austentatious: comedy improv and Austen adaptation in the twenty-first century
Civale, S. 2018. Austentatious: comedy improv and Austen adaptation in the twenty-first century. Women's Writing. https://doi.org/10.1080/09699082.2018.1509832
“Reader, I did not even have coffee with him”: Lorrie Moore’s adaptation of Jane Eyre (1847) in A Gate at the Stairs (2009)
Civale, S. 2016. “Reader, I did not even have coffee with him”: Lorrie Moore’s adaptation of Jane Eyre (1847) in A Gate at the Stairs (2009). Studies in the Novel. 48 (3). https://doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2016.0040
The literary afterlife of Frances Burney and the Victorian periodical press
Civale, S. 2011. The literary afterlife of Frances Burney and the Victorian periodical press. Victorian Periodicals Review. 44 (3), pp. 236-266. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.2011.0027