During the eighteenth Century the consolidation of English Criticism and Aesthetic as autonomous subjects proceeded side by side with the first theorization on the nature and power of genius. The essay investigates the concept of genius and its metamorphoses in Eighteenth century English Criticism in the light of the latest studies of the formation of the Shakespearean canon. It aims to demonstrate that the new meanings taken on by the term genius are linked to the various process of appropriation in which Shakespeare is the primary object not only as a poet opposed to neoclassical taste but also as a national playwright expressing a specific national identity. The essay explores the following texts: John Dennis’ On the Genius and Writing of Shakespeare (1711), Joseph Addison’s The Pleasure of the Imagination (in particular his notion of the ‘Fairy Way of Writing’, 1711, 1714), Edward Young’s Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), William Duff’s An Essay on Original Genius and its various modes of extertion in Philosophy and the Fine Arts, Particularly in Poetry (1767) and Elizabeth Montagu’s An Essay on the Writing and Genius of Shakespeare, compared with the Greek and French dramatic poets with some remarks upon the misrepresentation of Voltaire (1769).
The Concept of Genius and Its Metamorphoses in Eighteenth-Century English Criticism
GOLINELLI, GILBERTA
2005
Abstract
During the eighteenth Century the consolidation of English Criticism and Aesthetic as autonomous subjects proceeded side by side with the first theorization on the nature and power of genius. The essay investigates the concept of genius and its metamorphoses in Eighteenth century English Criticism in the light of the latest studies of the formation of the Shakespearean canon. It aims to demonstrate that the new meanings taken on by the term genius are linked to the various process of appropriation in which Shakespeare is the primary object not only as a poet opposed to neoclassical taste but also as a national playwright expressing a specific national identity. The essay explores the following texts: John Dennis’ On the Genius and Writing of Shakespeare (1711), Joseph Addison’s The Pleasure of the Imagination (in particular his notion of the ‘Fairy Way of Writing’, 1711, 1714), Edward Young’s Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), William Duff’s An Essay on Original Genius and its various modes of extertion in Philosophy and the Fine Arts, Particularly in Poetry (1767) and Elizabeth Montagu’s An Essay on the Writing and Genius of Shakespeare, compared with the Greek and French dramatic poets with some remarks upon the misrepresentation of Voltaire (1769).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
