Blasphemy and Politics in Romantic Literature

1.       Introduction1.1. Blasphemy: History and Definition



1.2. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Blasphemy and Creativity

1.3. Shelley and Romantic Religion

 

2.       Chapter 2: Blasphemy and Copyright in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1695-1823

2.1. Licensing of the Press and Religious Tolerance, 1698-1710

2.2. Copyright, Censorship and Class: The Statute of Anne and 'Bad Language', 1710-1745

2.3. Blasphemy, Obscenity or Sedition: John Wilkes to William Hone, 1745-1817

2.4. Chancery and the Dissemination of 'Injurious' Texts, 1817-1823

 

3.       Chapter 3: Blasphemy and the Shelley Canon: Queen Mab and Laon and Cythna

3.1. Queen Mab: Readership, Reputation and 'Respectability' in the 1820s

3.2. Censoring Queen Mab in the (Il)legitimate Press: William Clark, Richard Carlile, Mary Shelley

3.3. From 'God' to 'Power': Laon and Cythna to The Revolt of Islam

3.4. The Contemporary Shelley Canon 



4.       Chapter 4: Vulgar Anthropomorphisms: Blasphemy, Power and the Philosophy of Language

4.1. Anthropomorphising the Abstract: Scepticism of Language in Queen Mab and Laon and Cythna

4.2. The Vitality and Epistemology of Language: 'Ode to the West Wind' and 'Mont Blanc' 



5.       Chapter 5: The Promethean Conqueror, the Galilean Serpent and the Jacobin Jesus: Shelley's Interpretation(s) of Jesus Christ

5.1. Secularising and Demystifing Jesus

5.2. A Jesus in History: Reformer and Blasphemer5.3. Prometheus Unbound: Suffering, Faith and Atonement in the Gospel According to Percy Bysshe Shelley

 



6.       Conclusion

6.1. From Infidel to Canonisation: Shelley's Posthumous Reputation

Paul Whickman is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Derby, UK. Paul's research interests lie in the Romantic period, particularly the work of Byron, Shelley and Keats. He has published in journals such as the Keats-Shelley Review and was previously a contributor to the Year's Work in English Studies (2015-2018).