Romantic Moods

This large and ambitious study reinterprets the evolution of British and German Romanticism as a progress through three successive 'moods.' By this term Pfau here means emotion read in its embodied manifestation as the 'voice' of a historical moment rather than that of a given individual. In constructing this reading he draws on a multifaceted philosophical tradition influenced most strongly by Heidegger and Kant but also by such wide-ranging figures as Hegel Marx Nietzsche Freud and Adorno among others. The result is a new understanding of the basis of the Romantic poet's voice (picking up on the German etymological link between Stimmung 'mood' and Stimme 'voice') as a holistic cultural condition not localizable as either content or form textual or psychic.This is a work for scholars and advanced students one that is likely to stimulate considerable reaction and make a significant and enduring contribution to Romantic studies.