This book discovers the latent working of the theatre in British Romantic literature. It shows how two central writers, Wordsworth and Scott, were fascinated by theatre conceptions that could not be implemented on the British stage, and how they both addressed and practised this theatre in their own texts.

The book works out the importance of the theatre both as a medium and as a discursive field to address aesthetic, political and epistemic questions around 1800. It proceeds to explore the failing implementation of this modern theatre in early dramas of Wordsworth and Scott and its continuing influence on their later works. Detailed analyses of Wordsworth's poetry and Scott's novels illustrate how both writers used the genres they chose to develop a specific form of textual theatre. Finally, the study shows how this theatre returned to the British stage to influence subsequent periods of theatre practice.

This book, which also develops a new integrative model of intermediality, is relevant for everybody interested in British Romanticism or generally keen to learn about the fascinating relationship of literature and theatre.

Autorentext
Kai Merten, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel.