In the Shadows of Romance — 2011 ·

Romantic Tragic Drama in Germany, England, and France

By Jeffrey N. Cox

“Cox’s readings of these plays are interesting and convincing. . . Each analysis helps to illuminate the others, and much is to be learned by seeing the plays in an international perspective.”

Comparative Literature

“Cox’s study is wide ranging, comprehensive. It is insightful in probing key themes in the drama of Germany, England and France. . . . It is consistently illuminating.”

South Central Review

In the Shadows of Romance examines the role of the tragedy in Germany, England and France during the romantic literary period. Cox responds to the prevailing dismissive view of the romantic tragic drama, effectively arguing for its place as expressions of the whole romantic movement and as a vital chapter in the history of Western literature. He finds romantic writers across Europe creating a new kind of tragic drama that arises when they contemplate the failure of their largest projects, often embodied in lyric romances. The author incorporates readings of key plays by Schiller, Goethe, Kleist, Byron, Shelley, Hugo, and Mussett, placing the romantic sense of the tragic within the history of tragedy, and revising our understanding of the Romantics' relationship to the stage.

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Jeffrey N. Cox is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University, where he serves on the Steering Committee of the Interdisciplinary Group for Historical Literary Study. His work on the drama of the romantic period includes In the Shadows of Romance: Romantic Tragic Drama in Germany, England, and France; he is currently working on the literary circle around Hunt, Shelley, and Keats.