Victorian Poetry and the Culture of the Heart
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:27th Apr '06
Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 12th August 2026, but could change
Victorian Poetry and the Culture of the Heart is a significant and timely study of nineteenth-century poetry and poetics. It considers why and how the heart became a vital image in Victorian poetry, and argues that the intense focus on heart imagery in many major Victorian poems highlights anxieties in this period about the ability of poetry to act upon its readers. In the course of the nineteenth century, this study argues, increased doubt about the validity of feeling led to the depiction of the literary heart as alienated, distant, outside the control of mind and will. This coincided with a notable rise in medical literature specifically concerned with the pathological heart, and with the development of new techniques and instruments of investigation such as the stethoscope. As poets feared for the health of their own hearts, their poetry embodies concerns about a widespread culture of heartsickness in both form and content. In addition, concerns about the heart's status and actions reflect upon questions of religious faith and doubt, and feed into issues of gender and nationalism. This book argues that it is vital to understand how this wider culture of the heart informed poetry and was in turn influenced by poetic constructs. Individual chapters on Barrett Browning, Arnold, and Tennyson explore the vital presence of the heart in major works by these poets - including Aurora Leigh, 'Empedocles on Etna', In Memoriam, and Maud - while the wide-ranging opening chapters present an argument for the mutual influence of poetry and physiology in the period and trace the development of new theories of rhythm as organic and affective.
...stimulating and enjoyable book... * Gregory Tate, MLR *
The great strength of this book lies in Blair's analyses of these rhythms ...this is a fine book * Angela Leighton, The Tennyson Research Bulletin *
Blair uses her scrupulous research on Victorian cardiology to good effect and her subtle and nuanced arguments make this an intellectually persuasive and thought-provoking book. * Catherine Maxwell Womens: a cultural review *
The need to consider the heart as a literal and symbolic element of Victorian poetry has been neglected; this book begins to redress this disregard in a fresh and exciting way, suggesting that there is more to the heart than just its beat. * Amanda Mordavsky, The British Society for Literature and Science *
...beautifully inflected and original study...a book which offers an eloquent new perspective on this fascinating topic, and should become required reading for all interested in the study of Victorian poetic practice. * Roger Ebbatson, British Association of Victorian Studies *
...valuable for its attention to how the formal resources of poetry mediate broader cultural conversations. * Margaret Russett, Studies in Englsih Literature *
a compelling study...Blair has an excellent ear and fine critical tact, so her numerous demonstrations of metrical imitations of the heart are convincing and illuminating. * David G. Riede, Nineteenth-Century Literature *
There is a great deal here to admire...excellent book * Andrew M. Stauffer, Victorian Poetry *
...excellent book...brilliant readings of contemporary poems, both obscure and familiar...an extremely satisfying book; all that Blair sets out to do, she does so expertly...This is a book to be heartily welcomed not only by students of Victorian poetry but by all Victorian scolars. * Erik Gray, Victorian Studies *
Blair's welcome commitment to discussion of metrics runs throughout the book...After reading Blair on the metaphorical, the material, and the medical, in a fully historicized discussion, one will not feel or think about Victorian poetry or the heart again in quite the same way. * Linda M. Shires, Victorian Literature and Culture *
... insightful chapters...Blair's work[s] excels as model[s] of the critical value offered by the reciprocal study of literature and medicine. * Peter Logan, Literature Compass *
...an exemplary combination of rich contextual scholarship and a probing and patient analysis of metrics and rhythm, producing in turn fresh and satisfying readings...engaging and illuminating * John Holmes, The Review of English Studies 232 *
This book represents an important and scholarly contribution to that historiography by shedding new light on the cultural meanings and languages of heart disease in Victorian literature. * Fay Bound Alberti, Medical History *
ISBN: 9780199273942
Dimensions: 223mm x 145mm x 23mm
Weight: 481g
284 pages