Romantic Studies – serie

This valuable volume adopts a multi-perspective approach to the historical and dramatic figure of Richard III during the "long" Romantic period. It takes into consideration his controversial reputation among historians of the time, as well as his changing place within the critical literature. It likewise examines nineteenth-century adaptations of Shakespeare's play. Above all, Nicoletta Caputo’s innovative book discusses contrasting stage interpretations of Richard as dramatis persona, in the performances of such iconic players as David Garrick, George Frederick Cooke and Edmund Kean. The vivid overall picture that emerges of Richard III is that of a figure who exerts an almost inexhaustible fascination on the Romantics. Nicoletta Caputo persuasively illustrates ̶ on the basis of abundant documentary evidence ̶ the surprising degree to which Richard is to be found at the very centre of the literary, theatrical, ideological and ethical debates, over a period of several decades. Such extraordinary centrality in turn sheds light on Romantic culture at large, and in particular on its understanding of Shakespeare, grounded above all in character analysis, often of a moral and political nature. The Romantics tended to reify Shakespeare's villainous king, extrapolating him from his dramatic context, and turning him into an autonomous, virtually living person.(Keir Elam, University of Bologna)

Romantic Dialectics: Culture, Gender, Theater aims to emphasize the importance of collaboration and exchange in the exploration of neglected areas of Romanticism. The essays grouped in this volume, moreover, are themselves inherently dialectical, being built on, and shaped by, the underlying tension between competing and even at times opposing literary, social and political elements. The three sections of the volume include: Culture and international relations; Aspects of female-oriented aesthetics; and Theatre and drama of the Romantic period. These three topics well reflect the diversified areas of the research and teaching of Professor Lilla Maria Crisafulli, to whom this volume is dedicated. This collection also eloquently illustrates how current research in Romanticism, carried out by scholars from a number of different countries and schools, is nevertheless united by a shared dialectical engagement in generating and debating new approaches to this extremely rich intellectual field.

When the first issue of The Liberal was published on 10 October 1822, the periodical was largely dismissed by the British press as a political project conceived by well-known and controversial figures (L. Hunt, P.B. Shelley, Lord Byron, W. Hazlitt, and Mary Shelley). They were all members of the so-called “Pisan circle”, an Anglo-Italian community of liberal writers aspiring to cultural and social reform. Even though The Liberal was addressed to an English public, it was entirely conceived in Italy, a country which had become a symbolic as well as a geographical space, playing a crucial role in defining the journal’s aims and themes. This collection of essays examines the short and difficult life of the periodical, reassessing its cultural politics, its relationship to Italy, the controversial British reception, and its relevance to Romantic (and indeed contemporary) debates on Liberalism.