Overview

Most of us have, at one time, been obsessed with something, but how did obsession become a mental illness? This book examines literary, medical, and philosophical texts to argue that what we call obsession became a disease in the Romantic era and reflects the era’s anxieties. Using a number of literary texts, some well-known (like Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 “The Tell Tale Heart”) and some not (like Charlotte Dacre’s 1811 The Passions  and Charles Brockden Brown’s 1787 Edgar Huntly), the book looks at “vigilia”, an overly intense curiosity, “intellectual monomania”, an obsession with study, “nymphomania” and “erotomania”, gendered forms of desire, “revolutiana”, an obsession with sublime violence and military service, and “ideality,” an obsession with an idea. The coda argues that traces of these Romantic constructs can be seen in popular accounts of obsession today. 

Full Product Details

Author:   Kathleen Béres Rogers
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2019
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9783030139872

ISBN 10:   3030139875
Pages:   206
Publication Date:   09 April 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

"1. Introduction: Scorpions in the Mind.- 2. Vigilia and the Science of the Mind in William Godwin's Caleb Williams and Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, or Memories of a Sleepwalker.- 3. Intellectual Monomania and Enthusiasm in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney.- 4. The Stings of Love: Erotomania and Nymphomania in John Keats's Isabella, or The Pot of Basil and Charlotte Dacre's The Passions.- 5. Revolutiana and the Sublime in George Gleig's Subaltern, Lord Byron's Siege of Corinth, and Joanna Baillie's Count Basil.- 6. Ideality and Art in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ""Rime of the Ancient Mariner"" and Edgar Allen Poe's ""Berenice"" and ""The Tell-Tale Heart"".- 7. Coda: From Scorpions to Spiders, A.S. Byatt's Possession."

Reviews

Rogers has woven a brilliant account of how Romantic obsession and resultant madness are not merely psychological phenomena, which, given the breadth of the scholarship here, would represent a misreading of the period, but embodied, pathologized, medicalized events. ... She has opened up new seams of inquiry, notably in texts she does not even mention in her book ... these and other texts should be re-examined in light of Rogers's work. (Jeffrey Cass, European Romantic Review, January 27, 2022)

“Rogers has woven a brilliant account of how Romantic obsession and resultant madness are not merely psychological phenomena, which, given the breadth of the scholarship here, would represent a misreading of the period, but embodied, pathologized, medicalized events. … She has opened up new seams of inquiry, notably in texts she does not even mention in her book … these and other texts should be re-examined in light of Rogers’s work.” (Jeffrey Cass, European Romantic Review, January 27, 2022)

Author Information

Kathleen Béres Rogers is an Associate Professor of English at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

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