Mesmerism, Medusa, and the Muse

Informationen zum Autor By Anne DeLong Klappentext Mesmerism, Medusa, and the Muse: The Romantic Discourse of Spontaneous Creativity explores the connections among the Romantic discourse of spontaneous literary creativity, the nineteenth-century cultural practice of mesmerism, and the mythical Medusa. This analysis of Medusan mesmerism in the works of Mary Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) contributes to recent scholarship about improvisational poetics, the subversive potential of mesmerism, and Medusa as a feminist icon.

Auteur

By Anne DeLong

Texte du rabat

Mesmerism, Medusa, and the Muse: The Romantic Discourse of Spontaneous Creativity explores the connections among the Romantic discourse of spontaneous literary creativity, the nineteenth-century cultural practice of mesmerism, and the mythical Medusa. This analysis of Medusan mesmerism in the works of Mary Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) contributes to recent scholarship about improvisational poetics, the subversive potential of mesmerism, and Medusa as a feminist icon.

Contenu

Introduction: Opium Dreams: Romantic Poetry and Spontaneous Creativity Chapter 1: Romantic Improvisation: The Discourse of Spontaneity and the Anxiety of Inspiration Chapter 2: Animal Magnetism: Mesmerism in the Shelley Circle Chapter 3: Mesmeric Muses: Galvanic Maniacs and Somnambulant Zombies Chapter 4: The Medusan Muse: Speaking Eyes and Snaking Veins Chapter 5: The Gazing Eye, the Speaking I, and the Assenting Ay Bibliography Index About the Author