Unquiet Things: Secularism in the Romantic Age by Colin Jager

Abstract

Reviewed by: Unquiet Things: Secularism in the Romantic Age by Colin Jager Jessica Fay (bio) Colin Jager. Unquiet Things: Secularism in the Romantic Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. Pp. 332. $75. Colin Jager’s Unquiet Things is a substantial, sweeping, ambitious book. The subject under discussion is nothing less than the condition of modernity itself: Jager’s exploration of the privatization of religion, the power of the state, and the effects of capitalism requires him to tackle historiography, hermeneutics, epistemology, and ontology; the strength and significance of this book, however, comes from the deep subtlety with which these weighty subjects are treated. Jager challenges the assumption that as modernity advances the presence (or “noise”) of religion is banished. The title, Unquiet Things, originates [End Page 339] from Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” where a fluttering film in a grate is “the ‘sole unquiet thing’ in his otherwise silent house”; this fluttering contrasts with the extreme silence that “‘disturbs’ and ‘vexes’ meditation” (4). For Jager, silence is an analog for secularism, and the “unquiet thing” is the “residue” of religion (2). Jager’s purpose is to trace the means by which the “noise” of religion has been diminished and to listen out for frequencies at which its “disquiet” may yet be perceived in the secular age. The interpretation of Romantic literature in terms of secularization—which was initiated by M. H. Abrams and Earl Wasserman and later interrogated by critics such as Robert Ryan and Martin Priestman—is refashioned by Jager into an affective mould. Unquiet Things differs from historicist studies that isolate religion as “a set of cognitive beliefs or mental dispositions” (5). Jager begins with the premise that religion was transformed in the Enlightenment from a mysterious emotive phenomenon into a cognitive creedal one. One of the most original aspects of Unquiet Things, however, is its claim that the affective elements of religion dissipated into what Jager describes as the “mood” of modernity: he is concerned “less with religious dispute than with the atmosphere in which that dispute takes place—less with Coleridge’s flickering film than with the air currents that push it around” (26). This “atmosphere” or ambiance is not necessarily heard or seen but is felt and experienced. It is notable then that in his own prose Jager favors negative constructions, often introducing ideas via those which he considers less important (“I am less interested in X than in Y”) in a stylistic manifestation of the essence of the project; that is to say, one of the purposes of the book is to analyze something that is accessed indirectly, something that lurks in the background. As it offers a new way of thinking about where and how affective aspects of religion survive in the secular age, Unquiet Things will be relevant for scholars engaged with theories of affect and the history of the emotions, as well as those interested in Romanticism and religion. The scope, intricacy, and occasional opacity of Jager’s cumulative argument makes the lengthy introduction worthwhile. The monograph is divided into three Parts (“Reform,” “Sounding the Quiet,” and “After the Secular”), each consisting of three chapters. As Jager moves from Walpole’s Castle of Otranto (1764) to Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” (1817), literary texts are not always presented chronologically, though the reader is taken on a long journey of British history that includes Henry VIII’s “Act of Supremacy” (1534), the Glorious Revolution (1688–89), Union with Scotland, the Enlightenment, and the Romantic Age. Such a time span is necessary because the “background condition” (63) changes slowly. Approximately two thirds of the book is concerned with prose. One of the unexpected benefits offered to readers is a new interpretation of the [End Page 340] evolution of the novel. Working through Otranto, Austen’s Emma, Scott’s Waverly novels, and Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Jager situates the genre’s progression—from romance to realism—within the context of secularization. The juxtaposition of Otranto and Emma in chapters 2 and 3 announces Jager’s argument. The process of reform begun by Henry VIII involves a rejection of superstition, miraculous events, and enchantment in favor of a more...