Romantic Mediations

Andrew Burkett

Description

Finalist in the 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Social Sciences category

Romantic Mediations investigates the connections among British Romantic writers, their texts, and the history of major forms of technical media from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. Opening up the vital new subfield of Romantic media studies through interventions in both media archaeology and contemporary media theory, Andrew Burkett addresses the ways that unconventional techniques and theories of storage and processing media engage with classic texts by William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and others. Ordered chronologically and structured by four crucial though often overlooked case studies that delve into Romanticism's role in the histories of incipient technical media systems, the book focuses on different examples of the ways that imaginative literature and art of the period become taken up and transformed by—while simultaneously shaping considerably—new media environments and platforms of photography, phonography, moving images, and digital media.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Photographing Byron’s Hand

2. Keats and the Phonograph

3. Blake’s Moving Images

4. Media, Information, and Frankenstein

Coda Toward a Romantic Media Archaeology

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Reino Unido
• Ireland
• United Kingdom
• Romanticism
• Media studies
• Stephen Ireland
• Great Britain
• Gothic
• Royaume-Uni

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 21 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438463285
• Langue: English

Extrait

Romantic Mediations
SUNY SERIES , S TUDIES IN THE L ONG N INETEENTH C ENTURY
Pamela K. Gilbert, editor
Romantic Mediations

M EDIA T HEORY AND B RITISH R OMANTICISM
ANDREW BURKETT
Cover illustration: Kim Keever, Sunset 44d , 2007, chromogenic color print.
Courtesy of Kim Keever and Kinz + Tillou Fine Art, Brooklyn, New York.
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
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State University of New York Press
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Laurie D. Searl
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burkett, Andrew, 1977– author.
Title: Romantic mediations : media theory and British romanticism / Andrew Burkett.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2016. | Series: SUNY series, Studies in the long nineteenth century | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007709 (print) | LCCN 2016020088 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463278 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463261 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463285 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Romanticism—Great Britain. | English literature—18th century—History and criticism. | Mass media and literature—Great Britain—History—18th century.
Classification: LCC PR447 .B77 2016 (print) | LCC PR447 (ebook) | DDC 820.9/145—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016007709
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In loving memory of Julia Elise Gregory, our bright star
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Photographing Byron’s Hand
2 Keats and the Phonograph
3 Blake’s Moving Images
4 Media, Information, and Frankenstein
C ODA Toward a Romantic Media Archaeology
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Illustrations
Fig. 1.1. William Henry Fox Talbot, Copy of a stanza from the “Ode to Napoleon” in Lord Byron’s hand (prior to 4 April 1840).
Fig. 1.2. William Henry Fox Talbot, [ Leguminoae Papilionaceae (Pea Bean) ] (about 6 February 1836).
Fig. 1.3. William Henry Fox Talbot, A human hand (ca. 1841).
Fig. 3.1. Michael Phillips, title page, Songs of Innocence (1789), re-created relief-etched copper plate.
Fig. 3.2. William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience , Plate 13, “Nurse’s Song” (Bentley 24), Copy L (1789–94).
Fig. 3.3. William Blake, Laocoön (Bentley 1), Copy B (ca. 1826–27).
Fig. 3.4. William Blake, Europe. A Prophecy , Plate 6 (Bentley 7), Copy A (1794).
Fig. 3.5. William Blake, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion , Plate 95 (Bentley 95), Copy E (1804–20).
Fig. 3.6. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of the title page plate from William Blake’s Jerusalem , The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.7. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of both the title page plate and Plate 62 from William Blake’s Jerusalem, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.8. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of Plate 62 from William Blake’s Jerusalem, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.9. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of Plate 19 from William Blake’s Jerusalem, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.10. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of both Plate 19 and Plate 26 from William Blake’s Jerusalem, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.11. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) partial shot of Plate 26 from William Blake’s Jerusalem, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.12. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) high-focus close-up shot of William Blake’s “Infant Joy” from Songs of Innocence, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.13. William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience , Plate 23, “Infant Joy” (Bentley 25), Copy L (1789–94).
Fig. 3.14. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) close-up shot of Urizen (or Albion’s Angel) from Plate 10 from William Blake’s America a Prophecy, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.15. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) close-up shot of the skull of a skeleton from a plate from William Blake’s The First Book of Urizen, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.16. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) high-focus close-up shot of the left orbital of a skull of a skeleton from a plate from William Blake’s The First Book of Urizen, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.17. Film still of Guy Brenton’s (dir.) close-up shot of the body of a skeleton from a plate from William Blake’s The First Book of Urizen, The Vision of William Blake (England, 1958).
Fig. 3.18. William Blake, The First Book of Urizen , Plate 12 (Bentley 22), Copy C (1794).
Fig. C.1. Kim Keever, Sunset 44d (2007).
Acknowledgments
One of the many meanings of mediation is to “intervene,” and the various interventions and other mediations set forth in the pages that follow would have been impossible without the extremely kind and generous support of so many people. Although I was certainly unaware of it at the time, this book began more than a decade ago while I was still a doctoral student working under the supervision of both Robert Mitchell and Thomas Pfau at Duke University. These two brilliant and inimitable scholars, who have remained my compassionate mentors and dear friends through the years, in so many various ways helped me first to articulate and develop my interests and arguments concerning the intersections among technology, science, and imaginative literature during the British Romantic period. Indeed, I have been exceptionally lucky in my first mentors in Romanticism, and I thank both Rob and Thomas immensely for their inexhaustible intellectual guidance and support over the years.
I first began writing portions of this book at Wake Forest University, where Jessica Richard, a close and careful listener and an astute and encouraging reader, helped me to envision and draft an early version of my chapter on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and it is a privilege to acknowledge Jessica for her inspiration and advice and especially for her friendship as my work took shape. Other past and current members of the Wake Forest community provided motivation and counsel for me as I embarked on this study. Bruce Barnhart, Anne Boyle, Margaret Ewalt, Susan Harlan, Omaar Hena, Jefferson Holdridge, Grant McAllister, Kathleen McClancy, Randi Saloman, and Eric Wilson have assisted in many different ways, and I thank them all.
Friends and colleagues at Union College, where I composed the vast majority of the present study, have brought me riches and have proved to be instrumental in my research and writing—encouraging me along with care and kindheartedness as I have worked to complete this project. I am especially grateful for the scrupulous observations and profound insights provided by Claire Bracken, Kara Doyle, Bernhard Kuhn, Judith Lewin, Jim McCord, and David Ogawa, all of whom read and commented on large portions of this text. Other members of my companionable community at Union have offered invaluable suggestions and have cheered me on in my work, and I owe a great deal to conversations and collaborations that I’ve had with Valerie Barr, Charles Batson, Kristin Bidoshi, Palmyra Catravas, Michelle Chilcoat, Lorraine Cox, Andrew Feffer, Megan Ferry, William Garcia, Christine Henseler, Hugh Jenkins, Katherine Lynes, Seyfollah Maleki, Lori Marso, Harry Marten, Victoria Martinez, Andrew Morris, Daniel Mosquera, Jillmarie Murphy, Erika Nelson, Stacie Raucci, John Rieffel, April Selley, Jordan Smith, Ruth Stevenson, Jenelle Troxell, Bunkong Tuon, Patricia Wareh, Nick Webb, and Brenda Wineapple. Additionally, I would be remiss without extending my warmest thanks to a number of staff members from Union’s Department of English, Schaffer Library, and Information Technology Services, and I am particularly appreciative of the thoughtful assistance that I received from Annette LeClair, Frances Maloy, Diane Nebolini, Robyn Reed, India Spartz, Kesheng Yu, and Raik Zaghloul. I am also very thankful not only for Union’s institutional support, which included a junior faculty research sabbatical that allowed me to finish this project, but also for the College’s material aid of this book through a range of fellowships and grants, such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation “Our Shared Humanities” Grant, the Humanities Faculty Research Fellowship, and the Internal Education Foundation Grant.
I have benefitted greatly as well from a selfless community of scholars in nineteenth-century studies who have provided commentary on myriad versions of this project in one way or another over the past half decade: special thanks here to Alan Bewell, James Brooke-Smith, Mark Canuel, Katey Castellano, David Collings, Noah Comet, Joel Faflak, Neil Fraistat, Geraldine Friedman, Evan Gottlieb, Nathan Hensley, Yohei Igarashi, Noel Jackson, Kir Kuiken, Joshua Lambier, Celeste Langan, Kirstyn Leuner, Mark Lussier, Tom Mole, Jonathan Mulrooney, Lauren Neefe, Peter Otto, Emma Peacocke, Brian Rejack, Christopher Rovee, John Savarese, Kate Singer, Karen Swann, Sophie Thomas, Orrin Wang, and Paul Yoder. I have learned a tremendous amoun