Romanticism and Patriotism: Nation, Empire, Bodies, Rhetoric

The current cretinization of public, political language is often viewed as synonomous with the discourse of patriotism. This volume begins to demonstrate how complex the vocabulary of patriotism actually is, by investigating its diverse use during the Romantic era. Patriotic nation building is at once linked to and disarticulated from the adventures of empire, the vulgar and excremental body, the cosmopolitan imaginary, and the compulsions of language. These interstices and disconnections constitute the very recits of a material, social antagonism that enmesh us to this day.