Robert Browning's pre-eminent status amongst Victorian poets has endured despite the recent broadening of the literary canon. He is the main practitioner of the period's most important poetic genre, the dramatic monologue, while his engagement with many aspects of nineteenth-century culture makes him a key figure in the wider field of Victorian studies.

This stimulating introduction to Browning criticism provides an overview of the major responses to the poet's work over the last two hundred years. It offers an insightful guide to criticism from various theoretical perspectives, elucidating Browning's participation in Victorian debates about aesthetics, history, politics, religion, gender and psychology.

Synthesises the disparate body of critical material on Browning, much of which has only been published in journals and essay collections

Offers an uptodate survey of Browning scholarship, including his bicentenary in 2012, and beyond

Uses a thematic rather than chronological structure

Autorentext

Britta Martens is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of the West of England, UK. She has published articles and essays on Browning's poetry and is the author of Browning, Victorian Poetics and the Romantic Legacy: Challenging the Personal Voice (2011). She co-edited the Browning Bicentenary issue of Victorian Poetry (Winter 2012) and is the journal's former annual reviewer of Browning scholarship.

Zusammenfassung
A stimulating and accessible introduction to critical perspectives on the work of Robert Browning, the main practitioner of the dramatic monologue. Martens explores the major critical issues and debates surrounding the poet's work and examines a range of sources, from Victorian reviews through to twenty-first-century criticism.

Inhalt

Introduction: Changing Perspectives in Browning Criticism.- 1. Romanticism: Browning and Shelley.- 2. Romanticism: Debt and Defiance.- 3. The Dramatic Monologue: Form and the Reader.- 4. The Dramatic Monologue: Causes and Context.- 5. Aesthetics: Realism and the Grotesque.- 6. Love and Gender Relations.- 7. Historical and Geographical Distancing.- Conclusion: Browning at 200 and Beyond.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.