Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
Charles Lamb’s Imperfect Solitudes
View through CrossRef
Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1820–25) are often seen as minor contributions to the Romantic tradition, and the essays themselves playfully foreground their own minority. This article traces the self-deprecating humour of the Elia essays to the writer’s perceived inability to generate for himself the kind of self-enclosure which is envisioned by the Romantic lyric. It reads solitude as both a wished-for state and a concept under formation in the Elia writings, and argues that humour – with its masks, alternate selves, and performance of roles – offers Lamb an alternative to the more serious authority of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and a way of ‘making do’ with imperfect environmental conditions for creativity.
Title: Charles Lamb’s Imperfect Solitudes
Description:
Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1820–25) are often seen as minor contributions to the Romantic tradition, and the essays themselves playfully foreground their own minority.
This article traces the self-deprecating humour of the Elia essays to the writer’s perceived inability to generate for himself the kind of self-enclosure which is envisioned by the Romantic lyric.
It reads solitude as both a wished-for state and a concept under formation in the Elia writings, and argues that humour – with its masks, alternate selves, and performance of roles – offers Lamb an alternative to the more serious authority of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and a way of ‘making do’ with imperfect environmental conditions for creativity.
Related Results
Charles Lamb, 1834–1934
Charles Lamb, 1834–1934
P>"Charles Lamb was not a poet or essayist or critic-he was a person." This, we are told by Mr. Priestley, was Sir Walter Raleigh's saying, and, given the indulgence due to an o...
On the Conditions of Imperfect Neutrosophic Duplets and Imperfect Neutrosophic Triplets
On the Conditions of Imperfect Neutrosophic Duplets and Imperfect Neutrosophic Triplets
In any neutrosophic ring R(I), an imperfect neutrosophic duplet consists of two elements x,y with a condition xy=yx=x and an imperfect neutrosophic triplet consists of three elemen...
Citizen Responsibility for War in Imperfect Democracies
Citizen Responsibility for War in Imperfect Democracies
ABSTRACT: Are individual citizens of imperfect democracies morally responsible for unjust wars waged by their state? Moral responsibility for unjust wars involves both retrospectiv...
Cicero Speaking with Solitudes
Cicero Speaking with Solitudes
This chapter argues that the question of how one can “speak with oneself” (secum loqui) was central to Cicero’s personal, philosophical, and political projects throughout much of h...
The Mariner and the Albatross
The Mariner and the Albatross
In these words, in a letter to Wordsworth dated January 30, 1801, Charles Lamb spoke of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Some readers continue to echo Mrs. Barbauld's c...
COOKING TIMES, COOKING LOSSES AND ENERGY USED FOR COOKING LAMB ROASTS
COOKING TIMES, COOKING LOSSES AND ENERGY USED FOR COOKING LAMB ROASTS
ABSTRACT Cooking times and losses were monitored during cooking often each of eight kinds of lamb roasts. Roasts were cooked (163°C oven, not preheated) to be rare (60°C), medium (...
Imperfect workers – imperfect answers: recent publications on the history of women and work
Imperfect workers – imperfect answers: recent publications on the history of women and work
Historically speaking, women's purposeful activities have contributed significantly to the uses and meanings of urban spaces and have been a key part of the texture of social and e...
The Imperfect God
The Imperfect God
This paper focuses on the Hasidic view, namely, that human flaws do not function as a barrier between a fallen humanity and a perfect deity, since the whole of creation stems from ...