Nonfictional Romantic Prose: Expanding Borders (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Nonfictional romantic prose: Expanding borders ed. by Steven P. Sondrup and Virgil Nemoianu Pere Gifra-Adroher Nonfictional romantic prose: Expanding borders. Ed. by Steven P. Sondrup and Virgil Nemoianu. (Comparative history of literatures in European languages 18.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2004. Pp. 477. ISBN 158811452X. $238 (Hb). Even though much of the best romantic writing present in the literary canon has been traditionally and predominantly circumscribed to poetry, over the past two decades many critics and scholars have turned their attention to a handful of lesser genres hitherto considered unworthy of critical scrutiny. The twenty-four essays collected here contribute to a textually richer notion of romanticism not only by examining multiple forms of nonfictional prose, but above all by doing so also from a comparatist perspective that illuminates the crosscultural nature of this movement. Virgil Nemoianu opens the volume with an introduction that charts the breadth of the terms romantic and romanticism; then several sections follow, each devoted to the main types of nonfictional prose writing. The longest in the book, Part 2, tackles romantic theoretical and critical prose. It begins with Monika Schmitz-Emans’s analysis of romanticism from a historical and transnational perspective, and continues with John Isbell’s argument on how romanticism was disavowed by some of its very originators. Gerhart Hoffmeister, on the one hand, and Manfred Engel and Jürgen Lehmann, on the other, subsequently study the influence of Hegel and German Idealism in European romanticism. To close this section Mary Anne Perkins reviews theoretical texts influential in the reassessment of several national languages and literatures, and Carolyn Buckley-Larocque probes the ethnological discourse behind Sir Walter Scott’s project of Scottish cultural recovery. Part 3, on political writing, features an essay by Michael Gassenmeier and Jens Martin Gurr that traces the influence of Edmund Burke’s conservatism, and another one where Steven P. Sondrup examines how the Scandinavian countries resorted to their ancient mythologies in their nation-building processes. In the geography-based Part 4, Mircea Anghelescu dissects the genre of the travel narrative, while Joselyn M. Almeida surveys the nonfiction produced in Spanish America between 1780 and 1850 and how it contributed to raising its independent consciousness. Two further sections focus on private and public matters. The genres that most relevantly developed the notion of romantic subjectivity are tackled in Part 5: Frederick Garber first examines the role of diaries, Eugene Stelzig then explores the autobiography, and Carol Strauss Sotiropoulos and Margaret R. Higonnet finally investigate several minor textual forms like teaching tracts, letters, and treatises that were used to shape women’s social roles. In contrast to this concern with the self, Part 6 expands toward the public sphere. While Frederick Garber considers the importance of the familiar essay, John Boening, Madison U. Sowell, and Monica Spiridon, respectively, concentrate on the periodicals, almanacs, and pamphlets that played such an important role in shaping civic opinion. Equally important was the short sketch, whose influence [End Page 231] in Spain and other European countries José Manuel Losada discusses. Relevant examples of scientific and artistic prose fall under scrutiny in Part 7. Alan Richardson and Joel Black document the connections between romanticism and early psychological and cognitive studies; Gerald Gillespie and Steven P. Sondrup likewise provide separate readings of significant texts on music and the visual arts. Finally, Part 8 concentrates on religious writings: Virgil Nemoianu examines several movements of theological renewal undertaken in the early nineteenth century, stressing their links to the aesthetic category of the beautiful, and José Manuel Losada in turn offers a comparative analysis of the myth of the fallen angel. Romanticism, as Virgil Nemoianu argues in the conclusion, was a turbulent yet extremely fertile cultural movement that, despite its contradictions, had a far-reaching impact beyond elitist circles. If its influence still remains so visible in today’s popular culture, it is not only...