Tragic Coleridge [Hardcover]

To Samuel Taylor Coleridge, tragedy was not solely a literary mode, but a philosophy to interpret the history that unfolded around him. Tragic Coleridge explores the tragic vision of existence that Coleridge derived from Classical drama, Shakespeare, Milton and contemporary German thought. Coleridge viewed the hardships of the Romantic period, like the catastrophes of Greek tragedy, as stages in a process of humanitys overall purification. Offering new readings of canonical poems, as well as neglected plays and critical works, Chris Murray elaborates Coleridges tragic vision in relation to a range of thinkers, from Plato and Aristotle to George Steiner and Raymond Williams. He draws comparisons with the works of Blake, the Shelleys, and Keats to explore the factors that shaped Coleridges conception of tragedy, including the origins of sacrifice, developments in Classical scholarship, theories of inspiration and the authors quest for civic status. With cycles of catastrophe and catharsis everywhere in his works, Coleridge depicted the world as a site of tragic purgation, and wrote himself into it as an embattled sage qualified to mediate the vicissitudes of his age.Contents: Introduction: Romantic tragedy and tragic Romanticism; Coleridges tragic influences; Hamartia and suffering in the poetical works; The catastrophes of real life; The tragic impulse: fragments and Coleridges forms of incompletion; The Lear vocation: Coleridge and Romantic theatre; The tragic sage; Failed sacrifices and the un-tragic Coleridge: Conclusion: The sage, the poet, lives for all mankind, Bibliography, Index.Chris Murray is an IAS Junior Research Fellow in the Department of English Studies at Durham University. His research centres on Romanticism, and explores the dialogues British Romantic authors create with Classical literature, Irish studies, and Orientalism.