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Alarmism, Public-Sphere Performatives, and the Lyric Turn: Or, What Is "Fears in Solitude" Afraid of?

Alarmism, Public-Sphere Performatives, and the Lyric Turn: Or, What Is "Fears in Solitude" Afraid... boundary 2 30:3, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by Duke University Press. boundary 2 / Fall 2003 its subtitle appears to direct, as a ‘‘topical’’ poem responding to a moment of genuine national peril.2 Taken as such, it is a gem in a mediocre kind—distinguished especially by its morally imaginative reluctance to chauvinize and by the lyric departures from its central theme. In the larger scheme, such a reading still leaves it, in many judgments, ‘‘a poem of moderate merit.’’ 3 The decisive formal complaint corresponding to the invasion reading is that a promising lyric has been spoiled by an eruption of political speechifying in its middle.4 A far-reaching reevaluation may be suggested by reading Coleridge’s subtitle with emphasis on ‘‘the Alarm of an Invasion.’’ To what extent Coleridge in 1798 shared in the widespread fear of French invaders might be debated. But the central concern of ‘‘Fears in Solitude’’ is, I would argue, alarmism—an emergent abuse of the public sphere that has proven far less ephemeral than the threat of Napoleon’s flat-bottomed boats. The rise of alarmism in the 1790s (by which I mean the rise not only in its incidence and consequence but also in the popular http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png boundary 2: an international journal of literature and culture Duke University Press

Alarmism, Public-Sphere Performatives, and the Lyric Turn: Or, What Is "Fears in Solitude" Afraid of?

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References (70)

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0190-3659
eISSN
1527-2141
DOI
10.1215/01903659-30-3-67
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

boundary 2 30:3, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by Duke University Press. boundary 2 / Fall 2003 its subtitle appears to direct, as a ‘‘topical’’ poem responding to a moment of genuine national peril.2 Taken as such, it is a gem in a mediocre kind—distinguished especially by its morally imaginative reluctance to chauvinize and by the lyric departures from its central theme. In the larger scheme, such a reading still leaves it, in many judgments, ‘‘a poem of moderate merit.’’ 3 The decisive formal complaint corresponding to the invasion reading is that a promising lyric has been spoiled by an eruption of political speechifying in its middle.4 A far-reaching reevaluation may be suggested by reading Coleridge’s subtitle with emphasis on ‘‘the Alarm of an Invasion.’’ To what extent Coleridge in 1798 shared in the widespread fear of French invaders might be debated. But the central concern of ‘‘Fears in Solitude’’ is, I would argue, alarmism—an emergent abuse of the public sphere that has proven far less ephemeral than the threat of Napoleon’s flat-bottomed boats. The rise of alarmism in the 1790s (by which I mean the rise not only in its incidence and consequence but also in the popular

Journal

boundary 2: an international journal of literature and cultureDuke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2003

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