Coleridge and Kantian Ideas in England, 1796-1817: Coleridge's Responses to German Philosophy

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Author of Biographia Literaria (1817) and The Friend (1809-10, 1812 and 1818), Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the central figure in the British transmission of German idealism in the 19th century. The advent of Immanuel Kant in Coleridge's thought is traditionally seen as the start of the poet's turn towards an internalized Romanticism. Demonstrating that Coleridge's discovery of Kant came at an earlier point than has been previously recognized, this book examines the historical roots of Coleridge's life-long preoccupation with Kant over a period of 20 years from the first extant Kant entry until the publication of his autobiography. Drawing on previously unpublished contemporary reviews of Kant and seeking socio-political meaning outside the literary canon in the English radical circles of the 1790s, Monika Class here establishes conceptual affinities between Coleridge's writings and that of Kant's earliest English mediators and in doing so revises Coleridge's allegedly non-political and solitary response to Kant.

Reviews

This book is an impressive piece of scholarship, meticulous in its premises, lucid in exposition, and boldly provocative in interpretation. -- James Vigus, Queen Mary University of London, UK * Romanticism *
[An] engaging and thoroughly researched study ... The major scholarly contribution is Class's approach, which expands upon previous studies by considering 'Coleridge's reception of Kant from a position of English culture' ... Complex and sophisticated. -- Philip Aherne, King's College London, UK * The BARS Review *
'Moving gracefully between German and English-language sources, Monika Class traces the impact of Kant's philosophy on the development of Coleridge's political ideas and elucidates Coleridge's ultimate reversal of Kant's political stance. The book makes an essential contribution to Coleridge studies, since it provides a clear and compelling account of Coleridge's complex and evolving response to the most influential Continental philosopher of his time.' -- James C. McKusick, Dean of Davidson Honors College, The University of Montana, USA and author of Coleridge's Philosophy of Language and Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology
'Based on careful archival research and rigorous intellectual analysis, Monika Class's welcome study significantly expands and enriches our understanding of Coleridge's role in the mediation of Kant's thought to the anglophone world.' -- Nicholas Halmi, Lecturer in English Literature and the Romantic Period, University of Oxford, UK
Monika Classs Coleridge and Kantian Ideas in England is a thorough study in the history of Romantic ideas and philosophies around the turn of the eighteenth century, focusing primarily on the traffic of ideas between England and Germany in relation to S. T. Coleridge and Immanuel Kant and exploring these fruitfully in relation to wider European contexts. The monograph is a historically informed contribution to wider discussions of the interrelations between politics, religion, and philosophy. * Comparative Literature Studies *

Author Bio

Monika Class is Marie Curie Research Fellow at King's College, London, UK. She is editor (with Terry F. Robinson) of Transnational England: Home and Abroad, 1780-1860 (2009).