Mary Robinson and the Genesis of Romanticism

Originally coming to prominence as an actress and scandalous celebrity, Mary Robinson created an identity for herself as a poet and novelist of the Romantic school. Through a series of literary dialogues with established writers – including Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft – Robinson put herself at the centre of Romantic literary culture as observer, participant and creator. Cross argues that Robinson’s dialogues shaped the nature of Romantic verse and went on to influence second-generation Romantics such as Christina Rossetti and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Introduction: Robinson’s Dialogues: From Della Cruscan to Romantic

Part I: Romantic Robinson: Poetic Dialogues

1 Harping on Lyrical Exchange: Coleridge and Robinson

2 Illegitimate Influences: Charlotte Smith, Coleridge and Robinson’s Sappho and Phaon

3 Romantic Authorship and the Morning Post Aesthetic: Robert Southey

4 From Lyrical Ballads to Lyrical Tales: Wordsworth, Reputation and Romantic Genius

Part II: Radical Robinson: Dialogic Fictions

5 Dangerous Dialogues and Queer Panic: Walsingham and Caleb Williams

6 Vindicating the Writing Woman: Robinson’s Response to Wollstonecraft

Part III: Posthumous Robinson: Early Nineteenth-Century Responses

7 Resurrecting Robinson: Charlotte Dacre’s Hours of Solitude

8 'Sick of the same bruise': John Keats, Robinson and the Forlorn Body of Sensibility

Coda: Robinson and the Victorians

Ashley J Cross, Manhattan College