Shelley: A Critical Reading

In Shelley: Poet and Legislator of the World Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran bring together an internationally recognized group of scholars to focus on Percy Bysshe Shelley's conception of the poet's social role and how that conception has changed over time. The authors consider the cultural and political forces within Shelley's society and his attempts to establish a new role for the poet in its renovation. They examine the ways in which Shelley's thought engages contemporary debates on feminism, class structure, political representation, and human rights, and how it in turn affects radical politics in England. They describe his impact on other cultures, particularly in national liberation movements of both the 19th and 20th centuries. And they discuss the continuing presence and relevance of his ideas within the contemporary social and intellectual arena.

Contributors: Donald H. Reiman, Greg Kucich, Terence Hoagwood, William Keach, Mark Kipperman, Michael Erkelenz, Gary Kelly, Annnette Wheeler Cafarelli, Neil Fraistat, Michael Scrivener, Bouthaina Shaaban, E. Douka Kabitoglou, Lilla Maria Crisafulli Jones, Marilyn Butler, Meena Alexander, Alan Weinberg, Steven E. Jones, Horst Höhne, Andrew J. Bennett, Karen A. Weisman, P.M.S. Dawson, Tilottama Rajan, Linda Brigham, Arkady Plotnitsky.

Betty T. Bennett is dean of arts and sciences and professor of literature at the American University, Washington, D.C.

Stuart Curran was the Vartan Gregorian Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania (emeritus). The author of two critical studies of Shelley, as well as the standard bibliography on the poet, he was also for many years the editor of the Keats-Shelley Journal and the president of the Keats-Shelley Association of America.