Abstract
Joseph Severn’s first posthumous portrait of John Keats stands in a complex relation to the quality of likeness in biographical representation. Severn pictures Keats as an absorbed reader, whose unawareness of observation is and is not like his final obliviousness in death. A comparable scene recurs in memoirs of Keats by other friends, and likewise in his letters, in an imaginative movement that is both essentially fanciful and oriented towards the truth of a remembered relation. Severn tell us that his portrait recollects the last time he saw Keats looking ‘like himself ’, and this essay argues that comfortable, habitual unconsciousness is the foundation of this type of likeness too.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callSimilar Papers
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
