Coleridge and Kantian Ideas in England, 1796-1817: Coleridge's Responses to German Philosophy

by Monika Class

Overview

Author of Biographia Literaria (1817) and The Friend (1809-10, 1812 and 1818), Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the central figure in the British transmission of German idealism in the 19th century. The advent of Immanuel Kant in Coleridge's thought is traditionally seen as the start of the poet's turn towards an internalized Romanticism. Demonstrating that Coleridge's discovery of Kant came at an earlier point than has been previously recognized, this book examines the historical roots of Coleridge's life-long preoccupation with Kant over a period of 20 years from the first extant Kant entry until the publication of his autobiography. Drawing on previously unpublished contemporary reviews of Kant and seeking socio-political meaning outside the literary canon in the English radical circles of the 1790s, Monika Class here establishes conceptual affinities between Coleridge's writings and that of Kant's earliest English mediators and in doing so revises Coleridge's allegedly non-political and solitary response to Kant.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441104960
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/14/2013
Series:	Continuum Literary Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	425 KB

About the Author

Monika Class is Marie Curie Research Fellow at King's College, London, UK. She is editor (with Terry F. Robinson) of Transnational England: Home and Abroad, 1780-1860 (2009).
Monika Class is Marie Curie Research Fellow at King's College, London, UK. She is editor (with Terry F. Robinson) of Transnational England: Home and Abroad, 1780-1860 (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviated Titles
Introduction
1. The Early Mediators of Kant in Bristol and London
2. Coleridge's Moral-Political Engagement in the mid-1790s
3. Coleridge and the Categorical Imperative in 1796
4. Coleridge's Poetic Response to Perpetual Peace, 1796-1802
5. The Closet Kantian
6. Kant's Giant Hand: Repression and Genial Self-Construction in Biographia Literaria
7. Coleridge, Nitsch and the Distinction between Reason and Understanding
Conclusion: Beyond Coleridge
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This book engages the reader and provides ample food for thought. Besides demonstrating that Coleridge's version of Kant owes more to Nitsch than previously recognized, she also effectively details the interconnections that both Kant and Coleridge drew between politics, philosophy, and religion. Class also does an exceptional job of presenting the social context of English culture at the close of the eighteenth century, when Kant was initially received and his critical philosophy was dispersed. Instead of retelling the oft—told tale of Coleridge's march to conservatism as a straightforward, linear path marked by clear signposts, Class maps the twists and turns of the journey, the reversals and regressions as well as the public relations dilemmas. So while this book may prove challenging for those unversed in Kant, it is hardly meant for Kantians alone. Besides engaging Coleridgeans and Romanticists, it should also appeal to anyone interested in the intellectual, political, and social history of the period.” —Thomas R. Simmons, Review 19

“[An] engaging and thoroughly researched study ... The major scholarly contribution is Class's approach, which expands upon previous studies by considering 'Coleridge's reception of Kant from a position of English culture' ... Complex and sophisticated.” — The BARS Review

From the Publisher

This book engages the reader and provides ample food for thought. Besides demonstrating that Coleridge's version of Kant owes more to Nitsch than previously recognized, she also effectively details the interconnections that both Kant and Coleridge drew between politics, philosophy, and religion. Class also does an exceptional job of presenting the social context of English culture at the close of the eighteenth century, when Kant was initially received and his critical philosophy was dispersed. Instead of retelling the oft-told tale of Coleridge's march to conservatism as a straightforward, linear path marked by clear signposts, Class maps the twists and turns of the journey, the reversals and regressions as well as the public relations dilemmas. So while this book may prove challenging for those unversed in Kant, it is hardly meant for Kantians alone. Besides engaging Coleridgeans and Romanticists, it should also appeal to anyone interested in the intellectual, political, and social history of the period.

Review 19 Thomas R. Simmons