The Myth and Identity of the Romantic Artist in European Literature: A Self-Constructed Fantasy

by Elena Anastasaki

Overview

This study addresses the question of artistic identity and the myth of the artist as it has been shaped by the artists themselves. While the term artist is to be understood in a broad sense, the focus of this study is the literature of the Romantic tradition. Identity is largely perceived as a construct, and a central hypothesis of this book concerns its aesthetic value and the ways it creates dominant narratives of self-perception that produce powerful myths.

The construction of the artist’s identity, be it collective or personal, rests on a series of aesthetic praxes. Caught between the mythic idealisation of poetic genius and its social devaluation, the Romantic artist seeks to create a place for himself, and in doing so, he engages in his own mythmaking. This process is studied in an interdisciplinary perspective, approaching texts and writers from different traditions. The study analyses various typologies of the artist, numerous mythmaking strategies as well as several postural techniques; all of which have sketched major direct or indirect fictional self-portraits in the European tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032314143
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/27/2024
Series:	Routledge Studies in Comparative Literature
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Elena Anastasaki is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Department of Language and Intercultural Studies at the University of Thessaly (Greece). She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Universities of Kent and Paris 8.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Notes on Translation

Introduction

• Overview of the Background Scene
• Outline of Approach, Key Concepts and Methodology
• Book Structure

Part One

Chapter 1, Forming Identity: An Interdisciplinary Approach

• Ethos and the Image of the Author
• Narrative and Identity Theories: Narrating the Self, an Ontological Dilemma
• Identity and Aesthetics
• Kant, Schiller, and Romantic Aesthetics

Chapter 2, The Making of Artistic Genius

• A philosophical Concept
• The Figure of Chatterton
• Coleridge’s Chatterton: A Life-long Companion
• Alfred de Vigny’s Chatterton: The Emblem of a Social Cause

Chapter 3, Goethe’s Prometheus, Rousseau’s Pygmalion, and their Progeny

• "Here sit I, forming mortals / After my image": The Promethean Artist
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Prometheus"
• Lord Byron, "Ode to Prometheus"
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound
• Victor Hugo, "Genius," "The grieving poem weeps"
• Théophile Gautier, "On the Prometheus of Madrid"

• Pygmalion and the Ontological Status of the Work of Art
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pygmalion
• Thomas Lovell Beddoes, "Pygmalion, or the Cyprian Statuary"

Part Two

Chapter 4, "Now, if I know myself, I should say, that I have no character at all"–Byron’s Mythmaking Strategies

• The Quest for a Personal Voice
• The Poet’s Physical Appearance
• The Poet as Pilgrim: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
• Poetic Ventriloquism: The Lament of Tasso and The Prophecy of Dante
• Byron’s Public Persona

Chapter 5, Percy Shelley and the Metaphysical Authenticity of the Poet

• Alastor, or The Adventures of the Poetic Mind
• From Aesthetic Experience to the Aesthetic Self
• Adonais, or the Self from Without – Pivotal Moments of Self Awareness
• From Poet to Poet: "To Wordsworth" and "Lines to __" ("Sonnet to Byron")

Chapter 6, Honoré de Balzac, the Napoleon of Letters

• "[L]a tête dans le ciel et les pieds sur cette terre" – Balzac’s Fictional Artists
• The Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man
• The Artist as Martyr

• Sympathetic Parody: Grotesque and Sublime Identities
• The Bourgeois Artist

Chapter 7, Théophile Gautier, Stylistic Identity and Poetic Time

• The Negation of the Self: Les Jeunes-France
• The Golden Fleece: A Quest for Rubens’ Blonds, or How Art Spoils Reality
• Autobiographic Sketches and the Poet as Shapeshifter

Conclusion, A Sociopoetical Approach to Genius

• Materialistic Representations of Genius
• The Poet’s Two Bodies
• Napoleon
• Artistic Identity as a Narrative Construct in a European Context

Works Cited and Consulted

Editorial Reviews

"This book by an excellent comparatist is a remarkable study in sociopoetics. Addressing the fundamental question of artistic identity, it is a splendid work of reference to draw upon for anyone interested in the culture and aesthetics of the romantic era."

Alain Montandon, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature (CELIS/UCA)

"This comparative study, impressive in scope, traces the emergence of the notion of modern artistic identity in European Literature. Theoretically informed, as well as providing subtle analyses of original literature, this brilliant book sheds new light on our fascinating literary past."

Dimitris Kargiotis, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Ioannina

"Elena Anastasaki’s monograph is comparativism at its best – an interdisciplinary study on artists and geniuses, as well as (self-)stylisation and (self-)mythification of poets and poetic figures during the Romantic period in Europe."

Elke Sturm-Trigonakis, Professor of Comparative Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki/Greece

From the Publisher