Stanley Cavell and English Romanticism serves as both introduction to Cavell for Romanticists, and to the larger question of what philosophy means for the reading of literature, as well as to the importance and relevance of Romantic literature to Cavell's thought. Illustrated through close readings of Wordsworth and Shelley, and extended discussions of Emerson and Thoreau as well as Cavell, Duffy proposes a Romanticism of persisting cultural relevance and truly trans-Atlantic scope. The turn to romanticism of America's most distinguished "ordinary-language" philosopher is shown to be tied to the neo-Romantic claim that far from being merely an illustrator of the truths discovered by philosophy, poetry is its equal partner in the instituting of knowledge. This book will be vital reading for anyone interested in Romanticism, Stanley Cavell and the ever-deepening connections between literature and philosophy.

'The Constitution of Shelley's Poetry' is a close philosophical reading of 'Prometheus Unbound' from the perspective of the argument or drama of language played out in its pages. At its heart a four-chapter reading of 'Prometheus Unbound', the book is punctuated with readings of other Shelley works and prefaced with two earlier chapters: one on 'Mont Blanc' and 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty', the companion poems inaugurating Shelley's poetic maturity; the other on 'Ode to the West Wind' originally published with 'Prometheus Unbound' and here represented as 'signature' Shelley. The book's one most distinguishing feature, from which several others derive, is its bringing the power and pertinence of Stanley Cavell's thought to Shelley's poetry and to his explicitly articulated philosophical interest in language.

The book urges and practises close reading, but it provides philosophical grounds for this ostensibly old-fashioned approach, and it implicitly proposes an understanding of language very different from those now most generally assumed in literary studies. The book's bringing of Cavell's thought to Shelley's poetry would make two related but distinguishable contributions. There is, first of all, the reading of Shelley's poetry, which is new and persuasive both in many of its local moments and in its overall thrust. Second, there is the practical demonstration of the relevance and yield of Cavell's thought for literary studies.

'The Constitution of Shelley's Poetry' is a close philosophical reading of 'Prometheus Unbound' from the perspective of the argument or drama of language played out in its pages. At its heart a four-chapter reading of 'Prometheus Unbound', the book is punctuated with readings of other Shelley works and prefaced with two earlier chapters: one on 'Mont Blanc' and 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty', the companion poems inaugurating Shelley's poetic maturity; the other on 'Ode to the West Wind' originally published with 'Prometheus Unbound' and here represented as 'signature' Shelley. The book's one most distinguishing feature, from which several others derive, is its bringing the power and pertinence of Stanley Cavell's thought to Shelley's poetry and to his explicitly articulated philosophical interest in language.

The book urges and practises close reading, but it provides philosophical grounds for this ostensibly old-fashioned approach, and it implicitly proposes an understanding of language very different from those now most generally assumed in literary studies. The book's bringing of Cavell's thought to Shelley's poetry would make two related but distinguishable contributions. There is, first of all, the reading of Shelley's poetry, which is new and persuasive both in many of its local moments and in its overall thrust. Second, there is the practical demonstration of the relevance and yield of Cavell's thought for literary studies.

Stanley Cavell and English Romanticism serves as both introduction to Cavell for Romanticists, and to the larger question of what philosophy means for the reading of literature, as well as to the importance and relevance of Romantic literature to Cavell's thought. Illustrated through close readings of Wordsworth and Shelley, and extended discussions of Emerson and Thoreau as well as Cavell, Duffy proposes a Romanticism of persisting cultural relevance and truly trans-Atlantic scope. The turn to romanticism of America's most distinguished "ordinary-language" philosopher is shown to be tied to the neo-Romantic claim that far from being merely an illustrator of the truths discovered by philosophy, poetry is its equal partner in the instituting of knowledge. This book will be vital reading for anyone interested in Romanticism, Stanley Cavell and the ever-deepening connections between literature and philosophy.