Coleridge’s Colonial Interest in Abyssinian Christianity
Keywords:
coleridge, colonialism, religion, Mahomet, Abyssinia, christianity
Abstract
Coleridge’s radical and colonial interests can be explored in his 1790 poems as sites of power and resistance. As a product of the complex discursive web of the 18th century, the Orientalist Coleridge could not act out of such historical forces as colonialism that had gone into shaping him and his poetry. Although he attacked European corruption and desired a revolutionary figure such as Mahomet to make a return to Abyssinia as home to true Christianity, Coleridge perpetuated the prejudice of Christianity’s superiority over Islam. Disillusioned by the French Revolution, Coleridge created Mahomet to replace Napoleon to pave the way to Abyssinia where true Christianity began. This study is an attempt to show that Coleridge’s radical interpretation of Mahomet, and desire for the Abyssinian maid and a Pantisocratic setting are all ideologically-shaped discursive practices within the context of 18th century colonialism. With such political elements as colonization in mind, a better historically-engaged understanding of Coleridge can be achieved.Downloads
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References
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Wylie, I. M. (1984). How the natural philosophers defeated the whore of Babylon in the thought of S. T. Coleridge, 1795-1796. Review of English Studies. 34(140), 494-507. [CrossRef]
Armstrong, N. (1987). Desire and domestic fiction: A political history of the novel. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bloom, H., & Trilling, L. (Eds.). (1973). Romantic poetry and prose. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bowra, C. M. (1969). The romantic imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brice, B. (2007). Coleridge and scepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [CrossRef]
Brinton, C. (1962). English political thought in the 19th century. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Brown, N. O. (1982). The prophetic tradition. Studies in Romanticism, 21(3), 367-72. [CrossRef]
Butler, M. (1990). Plotting the revolution: The political narratives of romantic poetry and criticism. In K. Johnson et al. (Eds.), Romantic revolutions: Criticism and theory (pp. 133-157). Bloomington and Indianpolis: Indiana University Press.
Cain, J. (2003). An experiment in honesty: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Friend. Modern Age, 45(4), 295-304.
Coleridge, S. T. (1971). Lectures on revealed religion, its corruptions and political views. In L. Patton, & P. Mann (Eds.), The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Lectures 1795 on politics and religion (pp. 230-256). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Coleridge, E. H. (Ed.). (1804). Anima Poetae. London: William Heinmann.
Danby, J. F. (1975). William Wordsworth: The prelude and other poems. Southampton: Edward Arnold.
Day, A. (1996). Romanticism. London and New York: Routledge. [CrossRef]
Edwards, P. (2004). The statesman’s science: History, nature, and law in the political thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ferber, M. (Ed.). (2005). A Companion to European Romanticism. Conwall: Blackwell Publishing [CrossRef]
Fried, D. (2006). The politics of the Coleridgean symbol. Studies in English Literature, 46(4), 763-779.
Fulford, T., & Kitson, P. J. (Eds.). (1998). Romanticism and colonialism: Writing and empire, 1780-1830. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [CrossRef]
Greenblatt, S. (1989). Towards a poetics of culture. In H. A. Veeser (Ed.), The new historicism (pp. 1-14). New York: Routledge.
Hachicho, M. A. (1964). English travel books about the Arab near East in the eighteenth century. Die Welt des Islams: New Ser, 9(114), 1-206. [CrossRef]
Hedley, D. (2003). Coleridge, philosophy and religion: Aids to reflection and the mirror of the spirit. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heseltine, J. E. (1953). The Royame of Perse. In A. J. Arberry (Ed.), The legacy of Persia (pp. 359-382). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Holmes, R. (1998). Coleridge: Darker reflections, 1804-1834. New York: Pantheon Books.
Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of the world order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Jackson, N. (2008). Science and sensation in romantic poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [CrossRef]
Knellwolf, C., & Norris, C. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge history of literary criticism(Vol. 9). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Koestler, A. (1959). Thieves in the night. (D. Hardy, Trans.). Landsborough Publications.
Leask, N. (1998). Kubla Khan and orientalismm: The road to Xanadu revisited. Romanticism, 4(1), 1-21. [CrossRef]
Lee, D. (1998). Yellow fever and the slave trade: Coleridge’s The rime of the ancient mariner. ELH, 65(3), 675-800. [CrossRef]
Lowes, J. L. (1930). The road to Xanadu: A study in the ways of the imagination. Boston and New York: Houghton.
Malpas, S., & Wake, P. (Eds.). (2006). The Routledge companion to critical theory. London and New York: Routledge.
McClintock, A. (1995). Imperial leather: Race, gender and sexuality in the colonial contest. New York: Routledge.
Mckusick, J. C. (2005). Nature. In M. Ferber (Ed.), A companion to European romanticism (pp. 413-432). Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing. [CrossRef]
Meyer, E. (1991). I know thee not, I loath thy race: Romantic orientalism in the eye of the other. English Literary History, 58(1), 130-144.
Natarajan, U. (Ed.). (2007). The romantic poets: A guide to criticism. Blackwell: Blackwell Publishing. [CrossRef]
Oueijan, N. B. (2000). Orientalism: The romantics’ added dimension; or, Edward Said refuted. EESE: Norte Dame University 3(1), 1-4.
Patton, L., & Mann, P. (Eds.). (1971). The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetical works (Vol. 1). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Renan, E. (1896). Poetry of the Celtic races and other studies. (W. G. Hutchinson, Trans.). London: Walter Scott.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.
Said, E. W. (1981). Covering Islam. New York: Pantheon Books.
Schneider, E. (1953). Coleridge, opium and Kubla Khan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sharafuddin, M. (1994). Islam and romantic orientalism. London: I. B. Tauris.
Stubbe, H. (1975). The rise and progress of Mahometanism. Lahore: Orientalia.
Woodring, C. (Ed.). (1990). Table talk. London & Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wylie, I. M. (1984). How the natural philosophers defeated the whore of Babylon in the thought of S. T. Coleridge, 1795-1796. Review of English Studies. 34(140), 494-507. [CrossRef]
Published
2011-05-04
How to Cite
Abbasi, P., & Anushiravani, A. (2011). Coleridge’s Colonial Interest in Abyssinian Christianity. K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Languange and Literature, 12(2), 152-168. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.12.2.152-168
Section
Articles
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