Romanticism and Popular Culture

This evolving bibliography collects media that represent Romantic-era works and historical figures in fictional contexts. We welcome feedback and additions from the RC community.

Television

True Detective Season 1 Episode 3: "The Locked Room"

Director:

Cary Joji Fukunaga

Date:

2014

Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) references Keatsian negative capability: “You just look at somebody and think like they think, negative capability. I mean, I guess it's a skill. Most times, you don't even need that. You just look them in the eyes. The whole story is right there.”

Twin Peaks Season 2, Episode 16: "The Condemned Woman"

Director:

Lesli Linka Glatter

Publication Information:

Created by David Lynch & Mark Frost, Lynch/Frost Productions

Date:

1991

Shelley's poem "Love's Philosophy" appears frequently in the second season of the mystery television series Twin Peaks, including this episode.

Twin Peaks Season 2, Episode 19: "Variations on Relations"

Director:

Jonathan Sanger

Publication Information:

Created by David Lynch & Mark Frost, Lynch/Frost Productions

Date:

1991

Shelley's poem "Love's Philosophy" appears frequently in the second season of the mystery television series Twin Peaks, including this episode. -Wikipedia

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt poster
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Director:

Beth McCarthy-Miller

Date:

2015

In season 3, episode 8 of the television show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, "Kimmy Does a Puzzle!," the character Artie Goodman (played by Peter Riegert) says "drinking seawater makes people hallucinate. Haven't you ever read 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner?,'" to which Titus Andromedon (played by Tituss Burgess) replies "Sir, you should be able to tell that I have not."

Watchmen cover
Watchmen

Date:

2019

In season 1, episode 3 of the HBO series Watchmen (based on the 1986-1987 graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins), two characters (Laurie Blake and Dale Petey) view a massive clock, called the Millennium Clock, from an airplane window. According to Petey the builder of the massive clock, Lady Trieu, recited the lines "look on my Works, ye Mighty, and Despair!" from Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" at its groundbreaking.

Wonder Showzen

Date:

2005

Wonder Showzen includes a character named Wordsworth voiced by John Lee.

Zastrozzi: A Romance

Director:

David G. Hopkins

Date:

1986

Zastrozzi: A Romance: 1986 TV movie starring Geoff Francis, Mark McGann, and Tilda Swinton; “An adaptation of Shelley's Gothic novel, presented as a contemporary romance.”

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