Summary
Cooper, Andrew. Doubt and Identity
in Romantic Poetry. New Haven: YaleUP,
1988.
PR575.B44 C66
Summary by Leigh Anna Mendenhall
This book strives to explore and
demonstrate how Romantic poetry has
tried to expose two beliefs. One
is the belief in an external physical
world, and the second is the belief
in the reality of the mind. Cooper
attempts to show how the poetry of
Romanticism expresses the doubts
that arise when dealing with these
two ideas. He states that the Romantics
worked to prove that "What the imagination
seizes as Beauty must be truth--whether
it existed before or not." Cooper
also looks at romantic irony and
its effect on art and life, poetry
and politics. Throughout the text
he looks at specific examples in
the works of Blake, Shelley, Hume,
Locke, and others.
Cooper also examines how Romantic
poets explore the contradiction between
the physical realm and a higher nature.
He addresses the theme of the overcoming
of doubt and the evidences of skepticism
and irony. Finally he discusses
how various authors address these
themes in their works and how they
resolve them.
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Jesse D. Hurlbut--Last Updated November 10, 1993