Mary Robinson, Anna Letitia Barbauld, and John Keats Lecture Notes

Flashcards covering the context, critical reception, and core themes of works by Mary Robinson, Anna Letitia Barbauld, and John Keats, alongside general Romantic-era concepts.

Perdita

The name Mary Robinson was known by due to her role in Garrick’s adaptation of Winter’s Tale.

English Sappho

A title given to Mary Robinson in her later life.

Ashley Cross

A critic who suggests that reading Wordsworth and Coleridge should be based on Mary Robinson's influence, asserting that Lyrical Tales may have inspired Lyrical Ballads.

Wollstonecraftian ideals

The shared values Mary Robinson held regarding equal education and a university for women, expressed in 'A Letter to the Women of England on the Injustice of Mental Subordination'.

Mellor

A critic who states Mary Robinson opposes Wordsworth’s 'anxiously promoted' stable and coherent subjectivity.

Pascoe

A critic who describes Mary Robinson as a 'publicity hound' and 'romantic monster'.

Whitney Arnold

A critic who noted that Mary Robinson believed authors had a duty to make themselves known, not just their novels.

Sovereign of the mind

How Reason is described in Mary Robinson's quotes: 'O Reason! Vaunted Sovereign of the mind!'.

Phaon

A character in Robinson's work described with a 'melodious tongue' but 'murderous eyes', foreshadowing the destructive power of love on intellect.

Eighteen Hundred and Eleven

A revolutionary anti-war poem by Anna Letitia Barbauld that used anti-Pope enjambed heroic couplets and heavily damaged her literary career.

John Wilson Croker

A critic who negatively remarked that 'the empire might have been saved without the intervention of a lady-author' regarding Barbauld.

Maggie Favretti

A critic who observed that the use of 'prophecy' in the apocalyptic genre was male-dominated.

Jessie Reeder

A critic who notes Barbauld's interest in Latin America and the oscillating structure of her work.

Mouse’s Petition

A poem by Barbauld written from the POV of Joseph Priestley’s mouse, reflecting pacifist sentiments and the idea that all should enjoy 'the common gifts of heaven'.

Stillinger’s Keatsian structure

A narrative framework followed in The Eve of St Agnes involving real life, an entry into fantasy, and a return to reality that is somewhat unfulfilled.

Nancy Rosenfeld

A critic who argues that Madeline, like Eve, is inherently disfavoured because she is a woman.

Beadsman and Angela

Characters in The Eve of St Agnes who are intended to be moral defenders but are flawed and ultimately die at the end.

La belle dame sans mercy

The song Porphyro sings which reveals a reversed power dynamic where he is fearful of Madeline.

Revolution in female manners

Mary Wollstonecraft’s call for female authors and a change in literature regarding women.

Blake

A critic of reason who associated it with Bacon, Locke, and Newton.

Burkean sublimity

A concept of the sublime defined as masculine and related to mystery, whereas beauty is viewed as feminine.

Unsexed

A term from the 1790s meaning not conforming to gender expectations.

Rousseau

The intellectual connection back to Wollstonecraft, advocating that one should learn from nature rather than cultural conventions.

Ode to Nightingale

A work by Keats characterized as anti-masculine sublime.