Romantic Sobriety: Sensation, Revolution, Commodification, History

382 Pages·2011·3.791 MB·English

by  Wang, Orrin N. C

Romantic Sobriety
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Romantic Sobriety
Sensation, Revolution, Commodifi cation, History
ORRIN N. C. WANG
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2011
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wang, Orrin Nan Chung, 1957–
Romantic sobriety : sensation, revolution, commodifi cation, history /
Orrin N. C. Wang.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0066-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-0066-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Romanticism. 2. Senses and sensation in literature. 3. Marxist criticism.
4. Deconstruction. 5. Literature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. I. Title.
PN56.R7W37 2011
809(cid:2).9145—dc22 2010046803
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
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please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected].
The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book
materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent
post- consumer waste, whenever possible.
In memory of Betty S. Wang and Richard J. Conroy
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contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction The Sensation of Romanticism 1
part i periodicity 15
1 Romantic Sobriety 17
2 Kant All Lit Up: Romanticism, Periodicity, and the Catachresis
of Genius 36
part ii theory 61
3 De Man, Marx, Rousseau, and the Machine 63
4 Against Theory beside Romanticism: Mute Bodies, Fanatical Seeing 84
5 The Sensation of the Signifi er 111
6 Ghost Theory 138
part iii texts 159
7 Lyric Ritalin: Time and History in “Ode to the West Wind” 163
8 No Satisfaction: High Theory, Cultural Studies, and Don Juan 190
9 Gothic Thought and Surviving Romanticism in Zofl oya
and Jane Eyre 218
10 Coming Attractions: Lamia and Cinematic Sensation 250
Coda The Embarrassment of Romanticism 281
Notes 289
Index 357
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acknowledgments
Unlike the Beatles, I had a lot of help from my friends. A number of individuals
read and commented on portions of the book: Jonathan Auerbach, Marshall
Brown, James K. Chandler, Jonathan Culler, David L. Clark, William Cohen,
Marianne Conroy, Neil Fraistat, Colin Jager, David Kaufmann, Jon Klancher,
Marshall Grossman, Brian McGrath, W. J. T. Mitchell, Patrick O’Malley, Daniel
O’Quinn, Thomas Pfau, Marc Redfi eld, Hugh Roberts, David Wagenknecht, and
Deborah Elise White. I especially want to thank David L. Clark, Jon Klancher,
William Galperin, and Peter Manning for their timely interventions and support
during diff erent phases of the writing of the manuscript. I’m forever in debt to the
smart and perceptive commentary that everyone gave me. All errors and short-
comings of the book are my own. I also want to thank Jonathan Auerbach, Mari-
anne Conroy, Elizabeth Fay, Neil Fraistat, and Daniel O’Quinn for their advice
and encouragement during various moments of the long trek that was this book.
Ralph Bauer and Zita Nunes also cheerfully came to my aid in diff erent ways as
this project reached its completion. David Rettenmaier and Jeremy Horsefi eld
did a splendid job helping me put the manuscript in order; the P. G. Cool Pool
and Alex Paraskevas helped with the chakra side of things. Dan S. Wang was a
friendly intellectual presence throughout the writing of the book. Marshall
Grossman inspired this non-Renaissance project in ways that I’m still discover-
ing; I miss him greatly.
My thanks to my students, to the Washington Area Romanticists Group, and
to the University of Maryland Theory Colloquium for providing me audiences
where many of the ideas in the book were fi rst formulated and tested. A Univer-
sity of Maryland Graduate Research Board Award gave me the necessary push to
fi nish writing and conceiving a large portion of the book. An earlier version of
chapter 1 appeared in Modern Language Quarterly 60, no. 4 (December 1999);
chapters 2 and 4 in Diacritics 30, no. 4 (Winter 2000) and 35, no. 2 (Summer 2005);