Kaleidoscope of a Self: Byron’s Ravenna Journal

Abstract

The Ravenna Journal (written 4 January – 27 February 1821) documents a critical and complex period of Byron’s life. In light of the codependent and fluid relationship between Byron’s poetry and prose, this essay explores the literary value and poetics of the Journal and its function as a testing ground for Byron’s experimentation with style, tone, and language. I also place the Journal within Byronic self-representation and the era’s strong autobiographical impulse and suggest that the diary does not only reflect on the poetry/politics dilemma but reveals versions of Byron’s selfhood in a kaleidoscopic mode, one which resembles the make-up of Don Juan . In this way, the narrated self emerges as a refracted identity and an aggregate of moods and contradictions which, however, interrelate and are given shape and purpose through the regularity and conventions of the journal. Despite the limitations and challenges it poses to the reader due to its mediated and excised form, the essay argues that the Ravenna Journal enhances our understanding of the Byronic self and enriches our appreciation of the literary artistry of Byron’s prose.