Studies the work of Byron, Shelley and De Quincey and other Romantic writers in relation to Britain's imperial designs on the 'Orient'.

British Romantic Literature and the Emerging Modern Greek Nation makes an original contribution to the field of British Romantic Hellenism (and Romanticism more broadly) by emphasizing the diversity of Romantic-era writers’ attitudes towards, and portrayals of, Modern Greece. Whereas, traditionally, studies of British Romantic Hellenism have predominantly focused on Europe’s preoccupation with an idealized Ancient Greece, this study emphasizes the nuanced and complex nature of British Romantic writers’ engagements with Modern Greece. Specifically, the book emphasizes the ways that early nineteenth-century British literature about contemporary Greece helped to strengthen British-Greek intercultural relations and, ultimately, to situate Greece within a European sphere of influence.

This book examines the reception of British Romanticism in India and East Asia (including China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan). Building on recent scholarship on “Global Romanticism”, it develops a reciprocal, cross-cultural model of scholarship, in which “Asian Romanticism” is recognized as itself an important part of the Romantic literary tradition. It explores the connections between canonical British Romantic authors (including Austen, Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth) and prominent Asian writers (including Natsume Sōseki, Rabindranath Tagore, and Xu Zhimo). The essays also challenge Eurocentric assumptions about reception and periodization, exploring how, since the early nineteenth century, British Romanticism has been creatively adapted and transformed by Asian writers.

Oriental Wells explores the manifold ways in which the East was a major source of inspiration for the British Romantic poets, who generously borrowed from the Eastern sources in their effort to reinvent the British poetic tradition. It examines the “orientalization” of Romantic poetry, using works of William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Walter Savage Landor. Analyzing the Romantic poets' multifaceted engagement with the East, the book raises the questions: · What led Blake to formulate his thesis that “All Religions Are One”? · Why do Coleridge's poetry and the play Osorio echo some of the passages from Wilkins' translation of The Bhagvat-Geeta as well as other prominent Eastern religious texts? · What made Southey write his “Hindu epic” The Curse of Kehama and his “Islamic” tale Thalaba, the Destroyer? · What was the exact nature of the negotiations between William Jones' Orientalism and Wordsworth's poetics as formulated in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, and other poems? The book convincingly argues that the introduction of “cultural goods” from the East played a crucial role in shaping the form and substance of British Romanticism, while acknowledging that the Romantics' reception of the East was tempered by their ideological concerns and religious background.

This book examines the relationship between Romantic writing and the rapidly expanding British Empire.

The book highlights that the East was a major source of inspiration for the British Romantic poets, many of whom generously borrowed from the Eastern sources in their effort to regenerate the British poetic tradition. With reference to some representative poems of William Blake (1757–1827), William Wordsworth (1770–1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), Robert Southey (1774–1843) and Walter Savage Landor (1775 –1864), this book examines the 'orientalization' of Romantic poetics as well as Romantic Orientalism. It proffers the argument that the importations of 'cultural goods' from the East played a determining role in shaping the spirit of British Romanticism. For instance, how the Eastern poetical precepts and practices which reached the Romantics through the scholarly treatises and translations of men like William Jones, went on to influence Wordsworth's formulations in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is deliberated on. The book, however, does not ignore the fact that Romantics' reception of the East was tempered by their ideological concerns. A lacuna in the study of the Romantic poets' changing relationship and position with regard to the East results from a lack of critical attention paid to the role of religion. What led Blake to formulate his thesis that “All Religions Are One”? What made Southey write his 'Hindu' epic, The Curse of Kehama and his 'Islamic' tale, Thalalaba, the Destroyer? What might be the reasons behind Southey and Coleridge embarking on a project on the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam? Why Coleridge's Remorse echoes some of the passages from Wilkins's translation of Bhagwat-Gita? Whether Romantic pantheism has something to do with Wilkins' translation? These are some of the questions that book works on. It is revealed in the process of analysis that the early Romantic poets creatively employed the theological ideas of Hinduism and Islam in the poems written in the early days of their career, and both, Islam and Hinduism helped shaping the spirit of Romanticism. Christianity, however, played a neutralizing role in containing and controlling the Eastern influence. The use of the Eastern myths and theological ideas of Hinduism and Islam in Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey and their simultaneous privileging of Christianity, creates a complex web which is worth exploring.