Romanticism and the Rise of English

Romanticism and the Rise of Englishaddresses a peculiar development in contemporary literary criticism: the disappearance of the history of the English language as a relevant topic. Elfenbein argues for a return not to older modes of criticism, but to questions about the relation between literature and language that have vanished from contemporary investigation. His book is an example of a kind of work that has often been called for but rarely realizeda social philology that takes seriously the formal and institutional forces shaping the production of English. This results not only in a history of English, but also in a recovery of major events shaping English studies as a coherent discipline. This book points to new directions in literary criticism by arguing for the need to reconceptualize authorial agency in light of a broadened understanding of linguistic history.

Andrew Elfenbein is Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, GLBT Scholar in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Cognitive Sciences.