The Cast of Consciousness: Concepts of the Mind in British and American Romanticism (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)

The contributors to this volume represent acknowledged experts in the field as well as a number of promising young scholars. They provide a thorough examination of how Romantic authors grappled with the problem of describing the connections between consciousness, unconsciousness, and language in their endeavor to capture this interplay in their art. As this collection bears witness, the Romantics sought to discard old ideas about language and literature and to mold new forms in their search to recover, in both literature and life, the sense of human possiblity. The essays, while strikingly diverse in topic and approach, explore this broad issue and come to a surprisingly similar conclusion: for Romantic writers, genuine consciousness, whatever it might imply about self-awareness, not only made it possible for an individual to affiliate with something outside himself, but even made such bonding necessary.